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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Hermeneutics

Everything Concerning Himself, (Part 1)

I begin with a proposition: The Old Testament is not so much a collection of biographies as a biography. The Old Testament is the biography of Jesus, the Son of God. And as such, the Old Testament is the biography of God. This is what Jesus Himself says about the…

by Peter LeithartSeptember 16, 2013
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Theopolis News

Conference in Ukraine

Trinity House Institute joins with the Alliance of the Reformed Churches in Ukraine to co-sponsor a conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 19-20. Peter Leithart, President of Trinity House, will deliver a series of lectures on hermeneutics. He will also deliver several lectures at Ostrog Academy on September 18.

by Peter LeithartSeptember 16, 2013
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Books

If There Is Something To Desire

Vera Pavlova (b. 1963) has published over a dozen collections of poems in Russian. She came rather late to poetry. In her youth, she studied music and began writing poetry in her early 20s while she was in the maternity ward after giving birth to her first child. Her first…

by Peter LeithartSeptember 12, 2013
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Theopolis News

Book of Beginnings (Course Announcement)

Registration is now open for the Advent class at Trinity. James Jordan will lecture on the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, December 16-20. There will be a kickoff welcome on December 15, and classes will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church . Registration is open until November 1.

by Peter LeithartSeptember 9, 2013
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History

Idolatry and the Reformation

In 1533, Hugh Latimer, already well-known in the city of Bristol, preached a series of sermons attacking “pylgremages, worshyppying of seyntes, wurshypyng off ymages, off purgatory, &c. yn the whyche he dyd vehemently perswade towarde the contrary.” The writer of this account went on to say that “the people ware…

by Peter LeithartSeptember 9, 2013
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Authority

Authority That Gives

Even if Adam had never sinned, there would have been structures of authority, and authority would have been invested in particular men and women. Authority is not a postlapsarian rescue operation; it’s essential to the good of human life. Unfallen Cain might have wanted to build his new home on…

by Peter LeithartSeptember 4, 2013

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Jerusalem and Athens

What hath Jerusalem to do with Athens? The worship of Greece with the worship of the temple? Quite a lot, in fact, argues David Biale in Blood and Belief (26): “Greek and Israelite sacrificial customs turn out to have been more similar to each other than the Israelite was to…

February 12, 2014

Life in the Blood

David Biale ( Blood and Belief ) argues that menstrual blood is not defiling because it is associated with death (as Jacob Milgrom, among others, argues). After all, menstrual blood doesn’t mean a woman is dying but that she is fertile. On the other hand, the sorts of bleeding that…

February 12, 2014

Sacrifice without God

Durkheim said that “society” was the god to whom primitive peoples sacrificed, the totem standing in for the clan for which it served as totem. We might say, But of course. As FS Naiden ( Smoke Signals for the Gods , 277) has recently pointed out, by the time of…

February 12, 2014

Sanctuary of Life

John M. Lundquist argues that ancient temples were “associated with the realm of the dead, the underworld, the afterlife, the grave.” He states further: “The unifying feature here is the rites and worship of ancestors. The temple is the link between this world and the next. It has been called…

February 11, 2014

Ontology of Light

Paul says that everything that is in the light, everything that becomes visible, is light (Ephesians 5). He is writing about the light of the Father, Jesus, or the Spirit. If we are in that light, we ourselves become lights. But the claim is strictly true: Everything that the light…

February 11, 2014

Open Secret

John Lundquist claims that secrecy is one of the features of temples and temple rituals in the ancient world. All temples are sacred space, which means secret space, off-limits to any but the authorized. He cites Exodus 19:12-13, 21-24 in support. This is certainly true of ancient temples in general,…

February 11, 2014

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