Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Reformed Doctrine Stated & Briefly Vindicated from Scripture THE REFORMED VIEW ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL PRESBYTERIAN DOCTRINE The contrast between Law and Gospel is often treated as if it were a uniquely Lutheran idea, but Reformed doctrine also uses such a formulation. In fact, the distinction is important to understanding…
According to N. T. Wright : By “the gospel” Paul does not mean “justification by faith” itself. He means the announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus is Lord. To believe this message, to give believing allegiance to Jesus as Messiah and Lord, is to be justified in the present…
Imagine two strangers who happen to be standing on the same subway train; we’ll call one Joe and the other Larry. Joe accidentally steps on the Larry’s foot so that he, in a flash of pain, thinking Joe did it intentionally, resorts to name calling and says something about Joe’s…
Imagine being a small child at an orphanage. One day, one of your caretakers comes rushing to you as you play in the common yard. “I have great news!” she tells you, excitedly. “What is it?” you ask. “A wonderful family has adopted you. They’re at the courthouse right now…
The Westminster Standards, Repentance, & Pardon REPENTANCE ENTAILS ALL OF LIFE According the Westminster Divines, “repentance to life” is an “evangelical” (WCF 15.1) and “saving” (WLC #87) “grace”. By it, a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness…
Click HERE for an audio version of this article. For Part 2, click HERE . The ordination of women to the Christian ministry, specifically the pastoral office of overseeing worship and performing preaching and the Lord’s Supper, is a recent development in Church history. From the early church until the…
Showing page 227 of 309
Showing page 38 of 43
Since Mauss re-discovered the truism that there ain’t no such thing as a free gift, philosophers and theologians have fretted over the broken promise of the “pure gift” - a no-strings gift, a gift without expectation of return. It’s a Kantian deformation of an evangelical hope; but it’s bound to…
When the original creation is set up, there are three zones in the material creation: heaven, earth, and sea. Corresponding to this threefold classification are the three zones on the land: garden, land, world. These are already mapped in the creation before sin, and especially after the fall they are…
To punish Israel’s sins, Yahweh threatens to remove “the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water” (Isaiah 3:1). It sounds like a drought and famine, but as the passage goes on, the drought is a drought of leadership. Yahweh will remove bread and water insofar as he…
In the NYTBR , the redoubtable Tom Shone reviews a couple of recent books that explore the borderlands between movies and live. Shone points out the paradox that all movie-lovers experience. We can’t live the movies. “A life lived at a constant pitch of screwball comedy is a recipe for…
Alec Wilkinson’s New Yorker profile of mathematician Yitang Zhang is a fascinating character sketch and an introduction to the world of pure mathematics. Along the way, Wilkinson lists some of the wonders and mysteries of prime numbers: “No formula predicts the occurrence of primes—they behave as if they appear randomly.…
Many things contribute to the fidgety discomfort one feels one reading Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice . There’s our entry into the mind of Gustav Aschenbach, an aging, highly sensitive, very famous writer. There’s the Lolita infatuation he has with Tadzio, a “beautiful” Polish boy whom Aschenbach watches from his…
Showing page 471 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
