Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The book of Isaiah has a very brief introduction, one verse, and then plunges into a searing indictment of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. They are sons who do not honor their father, worse than donkeys and oxen who at least know their master. They are a bruised and…
This is the third of a three-part essay. The Literary Reader As a conclusion to this essay, I want to make some observations that grow out of C. S. Lewis’s remarkable Experiment in Criticism , mentioned in an earlier installment. What Lewis is interested in doing is coming up with…
Metropolitan Manifesto, the new work from Theopolis fellow Richard Bledsoe, and first "Theopolis Books" release, is out today! Head over to the Athanasius Press website to get a copy. Half the world's population now lives in cities, and that is where the Church must learn to serve. Rev. Richard Bledsoe…
This is the second portion of a three-part essay. Learning to Read Learning to read the Bible is easier said than done, of course. There are several reasons for this, and they all have to do with the art of reading. Reading is an art and not a science, and…
“It instilled a real and abiding change in the way I understand my life as a disciple of Jesus Christ,” said Clint Hail, a Community Development Coordinator out of Dallas who attended Theopolis’ course on Mission to the City . “The course renovated the way I understand the challenges facing,…
What does it mean to read the Bible as inspired literature? The method is not new nor is it uncommon in Dutch Reformed circles. Exegesis must be Christocentric, plenary (all the text serves a theological purpose), respect the context in God’s redemptive plan, and plumb the full literary depth of…
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The church’s stance with regard to civil order is neatly articulated in Romans, provided we read chapters 12-13 together. Romans 13 makes it clear that God has given rulers the sword, and that they are to use it for just vengeance. They bear the sword to punish evildoers and to…
D espite its claims to the contrary, Patrick Deneen writes in a 2014 piece in The American Conservative , “liberalism was never about ‘limited' government” or curbing absolutism. Rather, liberalism is about “the pursuit and exercise of potentially limitless power toward seemingly ‘limited' ends of securing Rights.” The limitation on…
I n David's final speech (1 Chronicles 29), he offers a fivefold praise of God's perfections (v. 11): Yours is . . . 1. Greatness ( gedolah ) 2. Power ( giburah , related to gibbor , “mighty man”) 3. Glory 4. Victory 5. Majesty He adds an expansive note…
P atrick Murray's essay in Culmination of Capital lays out sixfold aim of Marx's Capital : to present and examine in the form of a systematic dialectic the social forms constitutive of the capitalist order, beginning with the (generalized) commodity; to expose capitalist society, in its enlightened secularism, to be…
I n the Divine Institutes , Lactantius takes on Plato's endorsement of common property. He makes a grudging admission that it might be “supported so long as it appears to refer only to money.” After all, “everyone should be wise enough to despise money!” (translation from From Irenaeus to Grotius…
“W e dismiss what philosophers take to be the fundamental exercise of justice,” writes Ambrose in his Christianized Ciceronian treatise de officiis (translation, F rom Irenaeus to Grotius , 84-5). According to Ambrose's summary, philosophical justice takes as “the primary criterion . . . that we do no harm except…
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