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Writing

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

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Psalms

Reimagining Psalm 23

The Bible depicts Man’s transformation from beas t to priest in and through Jesus Christ. Two sets of people have their garments designed by God in the Torah: Adam and Eve and priests (of which the High Priest’s garments garner most attention). The first garment is beastly, while the second…

by Ben LoveladyApril 19, 2023
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Church Government

The Rise and Dangers of Presbyterialism

I became the pastor of Westminster Bible Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky soon after completing my Ph.D. in church history. On paper, it was the ideal church for me. Even the name, I thought smacked of my preferences: the Westminster Confession with idealistic Biblicism. I didn’t know it had been,…

by John CarpenterApril 11, 2023
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Luke

An Easter Meditation

Why do we believe in the resurrection of Jesus? It itself, it is utterly unbelievable, as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus also concluded (Luke 24:19-24). But why is it so unbelievable? Are there not many stories of a dead man or woman coming back to life? Stories…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 9, 2023
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Hope

Political Hope in the Negative World (Part 2)

In the first installment of this two-part essay, we provided a rough outline of a thick theological account of Christian hope. We concluded with mention of important critiques of such traditional views on hope, that by orienting Christians to place their ultimate hope in God and the future consummation of…

by James WoodApril 5, 2023
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Hope

Political Hope in the Negative World (Part 1)

Dare we hope in the midst of “ negative world ”? The idea of the “negative world” has recently served as a helpful framework for many to come to terms with the fact that Western societies (particularly the United States) are aggressively turning against their Christian roots and moral values.…

by James WoodMarch 28, 2023
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Biblical Studies

Luke’s Gospel of Seven

In his prologue, Luke tells us that his gospel history is an “orderly account” (1:3). Although generally chronological, time is not the only or the main organizing principle for his history. To argue for Luke’s main theme would take up too much space, but instead I want to explore one…

by Ryan HandermannMarch 24, 2023

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Kantian Eschatology

I n his essay on “The End of All Things,” Kant analyzes the “pious language” that speaks of “a person who is dying as going out of time into eternity.” Kant finds no comfort in the thought. On the contrary there is “something horrifying” about it. The end of time…

January 4, 2017

Urban Utopia

E ric Gilchrest ( Revelation 21-22 in the Light of Jewish and Greco-Roman Utopianism ) suggests that the conclusion vision of Revelation would receive a quite different reaction from its original readers, depending on whether they had been schooled in Jewish or in Greco-Roman Utopian traditions. For a Jewish reader,…

January 3, 2017

Watchers

T he angelic “guards” at the gates of the new Jerusalem are, argues Margaret Barker ( Revelation of Jesus Christ , 323), “probably a memory of the ancient guardians of the city known to Isaiah, ‘the watchmen set on the walls' (Isa. 62.6).” Barker claims that “These ‘watchers' are concealed…

January 3, 2017

Merry Christmas

I ‘m taking a break from blogging over the Christmas holidays. For daily seasonal musings and meditations, see the Theopolis blog .

December 19, 2016
Poetry

Poetic Apocalypse

C hristian Wiman ( My Bright Abyss , 51-2) claims that some poets—“surprisingly few”—possess “a very particular gift for making a thing at once shine forth in its ‘thingness' and ramify beyond its own dimensions.” He sites several lines from Norman MacCaig: “Straws like tame lightnings lie about the grass…

December 16, 2016

Enemy to Life

C hristian Wiman ( My Bright Abyss , 41) quotes a poem, “These Poems, She Said” by Robert Bringhurst, which Wiman says he “carried . . . in my mind like a totem.” It begins: These poems, these poems, these poems, she said, are poems with no love in them.…

December 16, 2016

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