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Writing

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

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Democracy

The Babylonian Unity of the Church

There are many legitimate reasons to lament the divided state of the church. Fleshly pride, theological hubris, sectarian rivalries are each in their own ways modern versions of the Galatian heresy, refusing table fellowship with brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. And denominations have frequently played the same role…

by Toby SumpterJune 23, 2015
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Theopolis News

Bogumil Jarmulak

Though Bogumil Jarmulak was not able to deliver his lectures on Jurgen Moltmann due to flight delays, he preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church on Sunday morning, June 14. He encouraged the church in how to deal with misery in this life, and pointed them to their only hope in life…

by Brian MoatsJune 18, 2015
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History

Christians, Liturgy, and the Past, 2

Connecting with the past within the present is a complicated endeavor. One of the most immediate challenges facing us is that of ensuring that, as Christians, our use of the past is undertaken in service of present faithfulness. The past is not a realm to which we retreat, but a…

by Alastair RobertsJune 18, 2015
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Theopolis News

Letter From Peter Leithart

Dear friend of Theopolis, Before he attended the Theopolis course on Holistic Mission during Easter term, 2014, Jonathan Sedlak lived with his family in the quiet, comfortable Milwau­kee suburb of Slinger, Wisconsin. An intensive week in Birmingham changed all that. Listening to missionary Wes Baker and hashing over readings and…

by TheopolisJune 16, 2015
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Architecture

The Crystalline Vision: Bauhaus and the Bible

“What is in the nature of these materials?” The Bauhaus, founded in Germany in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius, had a profound influence in every area of design, from graphics and typography to clothing, furniture and architecture. The institution was not so much a style as a method, its philosophy…

by Mike BullJune 11, 2015
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Books

The American Way of Being Church

​Russell Richey's ​Denominationalism collects some of the most important essays on its titled topic. The authors are a who's-who of 20th century American religious history: Winthrop Hudson, Timothy L. Smith, Sidney Mead, Richey himself, H. Richard Niebuhr and Martin Marty. Some are broad synthetic studies; others are more granular studies…

by Peter LeithartJune 10, 2015

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Restraining blood

Four angels at the four corners of the land hold back the winds that destroy (Revelation 7:1-3). Altars have corners, and at each corner is a “horn” that “stands” at attention. In the purification offering, blood is smeared on the four horns of the altar, turning the altar into a…

September 2, 2014

Sea-born

In a National Geographic interview , Marcus Rediker explains how ships provided the setting for developing some of the distinctive institutions and ideas of the modern world: “Large northern European seagoing vessels, which emerge in the 16th and 17th centuries, become by the 18th century the most important technology in…

September 2, 2014

Richard III, Black or White

Shakespeare’s Richard III is a black-hearted hunchbacked murderer. But there has been another legend of Richard III, as a gallant ruler, the victim of Tudor propaganda. Over the past century, the white legend has often prevailed over the black. Desmond Seward’s Richard III is mostly black, and that’s because he…

September 2, 2014

Fours

When John ascends to heaven, he sees four ( tessares ) living creatures, and in the scene in heaven they are mentioned five times (4:6, 8; 5:6, 8, 14). Then the Lamb begins to open the seals, and the four living creatures cry out. The sixth seal reveals four angels…

September 1, 2014

Winged Earth

This is an addendum to my reflections on wings a few weeks ago. Israel is sometimes conceived as a four-cornered land (Ezekiel 7:2), modeled after the four-cornered altar (Exodus 27:2; 38:2) or a four-cornered house (Job 1:19). Israelites are priests; their land is an altar where they make their daily,…

September 1, 2014

In God’s Path

Several factors need to be put back into the standard account of the Arab conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries, says Robert Hoyland in his forthcoming In God’s Path . The first is process. Speed plays such a large role in the standard accounts that we miss the variability,…

September 1, 2014

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