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Writing

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

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Ascension

On the Ascension of the Lord

Leo the Great's second sermon on the Ascension, Sermon 74 . I. The mystery of our salvation, dearly-beloved, which the Creator of the universe valued at the price of His blood, has now been carried out under conditions of humiliation from the day of His bodily birth to the end…

by TheopolisMay 25, 2017
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Ecclesiology

Church on the Cross

Life, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy says, is suffering, battle, pain, shock, failure, elation. Human beings are always torn, always riven. Much of human life, individually and col­lectively, is an effort to deal with suffering and death. By being the first Man, Jesus establishes the possibility of a different stance toward suffering and…

by Peter LeithartMay 23, 2017
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Baptism

Baptism Impasse: Baptists vs. Presbyterians (Part 1)

Is Christian baptism given to believers only or to believers and their children? That’s the question that must be answered—but only if you’re Baptist or Presbyterian. That’s how the question is framed between these two denominations in this dispute, and it’s along these lines the debate unfolds as each side…

by Mani MarprelateMay 18, 2017
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Political Theology

Philanthropic God

Again and again the liturgy of St Chrysostom calls God a lover of mankind. He is Philanthropolos Theos (man-loving God), Kurios Philanthropolos (man-loving Lord), Philopsychos (lover of the soul). Philanthropy wasn’t a Christian invention. Roman benefactors gave benefits to subordinates. What was new was the shape of philanthropy, for the…

by Peter LeithartMay 16, 2017
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Marriage

Marriage and Betrayal

Perhaps the most fearful of all possibilities in the world is the possibility of betrayal on the part of someone who is in a “position of trust.” This, unfortunately, is the first block in what ought to be the foundation of every marriage in the world. Every woman has a…

by Richard BledsoeMay 11, 2017
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City

Church in the Metropolis

It seems that denominationalism has had its day. A 2009 Barna survey found that denominational commitments have gone squishy in mainline Protestant churches, and Evangelicals don’t fare much better than the rest. After a similar survey, Ron Sellers of Ellison Research said that Protestants are as “loyal to their denominations…

by Peter LeithartMay 9, 2017

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Economics

Historicizing Homo Economicus

Among the German writers that Liebersohn ( The Return of the Gift ) discusses, Karl Bucher stands out as a crucial figure. Like other German economists, Bucher objected to what he saw as abstract British economic theories, which attempted to universalize the historically specific British experience. Beyond other theorists, and…

June 29, 2012
American Religion

Instant America

In his fascinating intellectual history of nineteenth and twentieth-century theories about gifts ( The Return of the Gift ), Harry Liebersohn discusses the theories of nineteen-century German economists who attempted to historicize economics. Friedrich List’s advocacy of rapid German modernization was partly shaped by his experience of the United States.…

June 29, 2012
Literature

Literature Guide

Louis Markos packs an awful lot into the 130 pages of his new Literature: A Student’s Guide (Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition) . The book is an introduction to poetry, with a chapter on metrics and rhyme and another on poetic tropes and imagery. Halfway through, it turns into a…

June 27, 2012
History

State and Modernity

In his Guilt and Gratitude: A Study of the Origins of Contemporary Conscience (Contributions in Philosophy) (pp. 37-8) , Joseph Amato follows Karl Polanyi in noting how the introduction of markets, contract, cash, corporations “radically transformed traditional man’s fundamental conception of giving and taking.” Adjusting to this new order left…

June 27, 2012
History

Keeping things together

In the second book of De Specialibus Legibus Philo writes about the feast of trumpets: “Immediately after comes the festival of the sacred moon; in which it is the custom to play the trumpet in the temple at the same moment that the sacrifices are offered. From which practice this…

June 26, 2012

Self-gift

John Paul II ( Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body , p. 168-9 ) notes that parents and children have a natural fleshly unity with one another. In marriage, by contrast, the one-flesh relationship is chosen: This “reciprocal choice . . . establishes the conjugal…

June 26, 2012

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