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

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Anthropology

What Irenaeus’ Christology Teaches Us about the Goodness of our Bodies

The Christian tradition has always had an uneasy relationship with the materiality of creation. Dirt, liquid, sex, blood, and bodies—the world and the flesh stand in company with the Devil as two of the three great enemies of the saints. Mundus, caro, et diabolus , as the old Latin saying…

by Gerald HiestandSeptember 13, 2018
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Biblical Studies

The Second Death in Liturgy and History

Since the destruction of Jerusalem was an event of earth-shattering covenantal significance, what might be the meaning of the subsequent tragic events at the desert fortress of Masada? In Hebrew, the name Masada means “strong foundation or support,” from a root meaning “to hunt, lie in wait for prey.” Located…

by Mike BullSeptember 11, 2018
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How to Worship

Cross My Heart

Take a long look at the photo above. To whom is this woman praying? It is hard to tell, isn’t it? Suppose we watch her for a while. We may see her bow low to the floor. Her lips may move, though perhaps it is too low for us to…

by Christopher KouSeptember 6, 2018
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Biblical Theology

The Problem of Psalm 137

Psalm 137 is widely regarded as one of the meanest of the imprecatory psalms. Certainly as we read it it is seems to be a song of pure vengeance. The exiles in Babylon, in grief over the judgment that Babylon has brought upon them, pray for the destruction of that…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 2018
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Course Recap

A Week with Esther Meek: Course Recap

Forty men and women came from all over the United States to attend the 2018 Trinity Term course at Theopolis. Pastors, students, teachers, an electrician, a city planner, and others from a variety of denominations spent five days at Beeson Divinity School studying covenant epistemology under the tutelage of philosopher…

by TheopolisAugust 31, 2018
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Matthew

Galilee of the Gentiles

Matthew records that Jesus "withdrew" to Galilee to begin His public ministry there after He "heard that John had been delivered up" (Mt. 4:12). Matthew’s typically matter-of-fact style veils the truly remarkable character of Jesus’ withdrawal. Matthew has been presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the Seed of Abraham and Son…

by Peter LeithartAugust 31, 2018

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Absenteeism

N ineteenth-century radical Henry Hunt was once offered a clerical post worth a thousand pounds a year. His duties? Nothing “for six days out of seven but to hunt, shoot, and fish by day, and play cards, talk scandal with the old maids of the parish, and win the money…

July 21, 2017

Painter of Passion

R aphael is, we might think, a painter of abstract and ethereal scenes. Andrew Butterfield says in a review of a recent showing of Raphael's drawings that this impression is due to our lack of direct exposure to Raphael's work. Looked at up close, Raphael's drawings reveal an artist obsessed…

July 21, 2017

Austen's Defects?

J ane Austen has been in the news this week, what with the 200th anniversary of her death on July 18, 1817. To mark the day, the TLS republished a 1913 review of an Austen biography by Virginia Woolf. Woolf has some very insightful things to say about Austen, but…

July 21, 2017

Cormac McCarthy's Gnosticism

A TLS review of two books of the Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy notes the hints of holiness in his novels: Often in his work . . . there are residual glimmers of the numinous. McCarthy, who was raised a Roman Catholic, is often read as an unconventional religious writer,…

July 21, 2017

Misrepresenting Moltmann?

I n his opening essay in Christian Dogmatics , co-editor Mike Allen quotes George Hunsinger's claim that Jurgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Eberhard Jungel are all guilty of historicizing eternity and subjecting it to eschatology. They all start from what Allen calls a “hard” or “ontological” interpretation of Rahner's Rule…

July 21, 2017

Coleridge on Utilitarianism

R esponding to a piece defending utilitarianism by one O. P. Q. in the Morning Chronicle, Coleridge writes : He is for the greatest possible happiness for the greatest possible number, and for the longest possible time! So am I; so are you, and every one of us, I will…

July 21, 2017

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