Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Understanding Shakespeare’s Biblical references is vital for the interpretation of many, if not all, of Shakespeare’s plays. For Othello , it is especially important, not only because the interpretation of the play is contested among various approaches — feminist, homosexual, post-colonial, Marxist, Freudian, new historical, and others — but also…
Mike Allen of Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, scores some points in his review of The End of Protestantism . He lodges the fair complaint that my rhetoric sometimes outruns my evidence. He argues that more stress on the present reality of the church’s unity deepens the tragedy of division; divisions…
I begin with two observations. First, on any millennial view, the Christian account of history is progressive, moving from the garden to the city. It is eschatological not only in that there is an end, but that the end is a glorified beginning, not merely a return to origins. To…
The church is a new form of polity that erupts into the world as much as the Son of God comes into the world. It’s a real-world political alternative to the polities of the ancient world. It resolves many of the political dilemmas of the ancient world, though not simply…
In my last post , I explained how Baptists really have a “one-ordinance-one sacrament” ecclesiology. I said this: “what Baptists really believe, in modern parlance, is that there is one ordinance (baptism which is a sign or symbol only) and one sacrament (the Lord’s Supper in which feeding upon Jesus…
One of the most extensive and penetrating responses to the Yoder-Hauerwas attack on Constantiniansm is found in Oliver O’Donovan’s Desire of Nations , in a chapter entitled “The Obedience of Rulers.” O’Donovan defines the word “Christendom” as “a historical idea,” specifically “the idea of a professedly Christian secular political order,…
Showing page 111 of 309
Showing page 39 of 43
A few thoughts on baptism inspired by reading a dozen student papers on the water symbolism of Exodus: 1) Several students pointed out that Moses was “baptized” as an infant. I’d never thought of it that way, but it works from various directions. Moses’ water-salvation is linked to the flood…
In the spirit of shameless self-promotion ?Eand what drives web sites like this except shameless self-promotion? ?EI am happy to announce that my book on Jane Austen, Miniatures and Morals , is now available from Canon Press. For those who don’t particularly like Austen, remember this: Every book you buy…
The following suggestion is inspired by the renowned scholar Josh Davis: The “wheeled stands” made by Hiram for Solomon’s temple form a gauntlet of water stretching to the east of the temple. A worshiper approaching the temple passes through the water, reliving the experience of the exodus. Inside the temple,…
In his excellent and stimulating book, The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation , Alister McGrath includes a chapter on early Reformation hermeneutics, and its relation to the medieval quadriga. He also notes the close connection between the developments in hermeneutics and the Reformation treatment of justification. A couple of…
And he made the cast-metal sea Ten in cubit from from its lip until its lip Round all around And five in cubit its height And a cord thirty in cubit Surrounded it all around. Now gourds from below to its lip all around surrounding it Ten in cubit caused-to-go-round…
It is a curious fact that one of the Hebrew words for “cup” is the same as the word for “threshold” (SAF). This could be pure coincidence, but I wonder. Cups function as temple instruments in Ex 12:22; 1 Ki 7:50; Jer 52:19. And there are “guardians of the threshold”…
Showing page 2052 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
