Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
C. S. Lewis tackled what is perhaps the most difficult and oft-heard objection to the Christian God in his classic, The Problem of Pain. 1 “If God were good,” Lewis restates the problem, “He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty, He would be…
There is nothing incongruous about assuming that Jesus lamented over His people on three separate occasions and that on two of those occasions, He expressed Himself in almost identical language. Two lamentations are recorded in the Gospel of Luke and are clearly marked as distinct. They are also expressed in…
In the Anglican Church in North America, the question of women’s ordination to the priesthood continues to be discussed with each diocese left to decide its own practice. A recurring point of debate is how we are to understand the priest’s representative role in the liturgy. Emily McGowin, in a…
The Theopolis Institute recently added two new members to its Board of Directors, Josh Rollins and Sarah Moore. Josh has recently served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for MeTEOR Education, and was previously Chief Financial Officer at MeTEOR. He brings a wealth of finance experience, and will take…
Since moving to Englewood, Colorado, I have been blessed to be involved in the nuts-and-bolts practice of Church unity. The pastors here talk about the One Church in Englewood, and mean it. They love each other, pray fervently for each other, and long for the unity they enjoy to spread…
One day, the author Samuel Clemens cut himself shaving. He was an inveterate foul-mouth and on this occasion recited the entirety of his iniquitous vocabulary. When he was finished, his wife, hoping to shock him, repeated every word he said. Clemens responded, "You have the words, dear, but you don't…
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A central theme in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger is his critique of traditional conceptions of time. Aristotle is his bete noire . Aristotle defines time as a “number of motion,” which “inclines toward the quantitative, and so chronological sense of time as a sequence of ‘nows’” (D.C. Schindler, A…
Acts 8:1-4 records the beginning of Saul’s persecution of the Jerusalem church following the death of Stephen. It has a neat, nearly-chiastic structure: A. Saul in agreement with Stephen’s “taking off” (8:1a) B. A great persecution, scattering disciples (8:1b) C. Except the apostles (8:1c) B’. Devout men gather Stephen, with…
Anointing the sick, including the dying, is one of the traditional seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. The Reformers denied that the rite qualified as a sacrament. Formally, this was because anointing did not have a direct authorization from Jesus; more theologically, it was not one of the marks that…
The ordination rite for Aaron & sons is a ritual of taking and giving. At one level, that’s simply a basic linguistic fact. The verb “take” (Heb. laqach ) is used only five times in Leviticus 1-7, mostly with reference to taking blood to smear on the horns of the…
I first posted the following in August 2015, right at the start of Trump's primary campaign. Seven years on, it holds up - both as an analysis of why decent people enthuse over Trump and why they shouldn't. I've changed a grammatical infelicity or two and added an update in…
God is an event, writes Robert Jenson ( Systematic Theology, I , 221). “God is a person,” writes Robert Jenson, on the next page (222). How, Jenson asks, can He be both? Jenson’s rejoinder: How can He not be both? “What else could be a person?” A bit more elaborately:…
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