Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
One of the main characters of That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis is Mark Studdock, who was a sociologist but his true passion was being a part of the so called “inner circle.” He wanted to belong to the elite that would bestow glory and power. On the other…
The first Pentecost meant many things, fulfilling many types, shadows, and prophecies from the Old Testament. Pentecost marked the beginning of a new creation, and a new humanity. Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters of the original formless and void creation to shape and fill it, so the…
Clint Hail has had an exciting, varied life. A West Point graduate and a former infantry officer, he now serves as Community Transformation Director in Costa Rica for e3 Partners Ministries. Clint has also attended two Theopolis Institute courses. Clint recently told Theopolis about his experiences in the military, his…
Before the summer is out, the US Supreme Court will hand down a decision in Obergefell v. Hodges , the same-sex marriage case. Every other week, ISIS releases a new video of masked fighters beheading Christians, and the rest of the Middle East is in chaos. Boko Haram terrorizes parts…
The Theopolis Institute Board added three new Board members at its semi-annual Board meeting on May 16: Dr. Roy Atwood, Pastor Uri Brito, and Rod Olps, Jr. Formerly President of New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, Atwood was recently appointed Abraham Kuyper Distinguished Professor of Classics at Morthland College…
The kingdom of God has come upon us, Jesus said. The justice of God is revealed in the gospel, Paul said. Whoever is in Christ, there is new creation. Isaiah's visions of lions and lambs and a peaceable kingdom are visions about the effect of the Messiah's first advent. If…
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McGrath notes that Augustine interpreted the genitive in the phrase “righteousness of God” in Rom 1 objectively, so that it was understood as the righteousness that God gives in saving sinners (in “making” them righteous). Ambrosiaster, as I pointed out in an earliet post, interpreted the genitive subjectively - the…
Ambrosiaster writes, “Iustitia est Dei, quia quod promisit dedit, ideo credens hoc esse se consecutum quod promiserat Deus per prophetas suos, iustum Deum probat et testis est iustitiae eius” (PL, 17.56b). McGrath explains: “God, having promised to give salvation, subsequently gives it, and as a result is deemed to be…
Nevin wrote: “There is more a great deal in Christianity, I firmly believe, more in the idea of hte Holy Catholic Church, than has yet been attained, either in the way of knowledge or in the way of life, by the Protestant Reformation.”
There was a consensus among the theologians of Trent, McGrath argues, that justification was “factitive,” a view that excluded that “a sinner may be justified solely as a matter of reputation or imputation, while remaining a sinner in fact.” But of course that raises the question, What exactly is a…
McGrath traces the odd development in Lutheran Orthodoxy of the notion that regeneration and faith precede justification in such a way that “where Luther had understood justification to concern the unbelieving sinner, orthodoxy revised this view, referring justification to the believing sinner.” This takes Lutheran Orthodoxy back in the direction…
McGrath notes, “While justification was universally understood to involve the regeneration of humanity, the opinion that an ontological change is thereby effected within humans is particularly associated with the period of High Scholasticism and the development of the concept of created grace. The earlier medieval theologians expressed the change effected…
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