Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Maybe you have heard it said that you will be content when you learn to empty yourself of all your desire. If you want nothing, you will always be happy with what you have. Maybe this seemed like an extremely godly point of view, and you felt guilty that you…
I write to mark a milestone and to commend to you an old book: my first philosophy book, Longing to Know: The Philosophy of Knowledge for Ordinary People (Brazos, 2003), has reached its twentieth anniversary. Although two decades have passed, the book continues to be relevant to our affairs in…
Consider what we mean today when we talk about “discipling” someone. In a typical evangelical setting, that’s going to mean you grab a cup of coffee for an hour once a week. You’ll talk about life, share some wisdom, pray for each other. There may be Bible reading and Scripture…
Theopolitan Bible Memorization BINDING THE WORD TO YOUR HEART Memorization has been an important tool for humanity since the beginning. In an age where smart phones are ubiquitous, memorization appears outdated. Why memorize anything that could be looked up on a phone in seconds? This new technology leaves many unable…
2022-2023 Prize The Theopolis Institute is pleased to announce the third round of the James B. Jordan Prize to honor outstanding doctoral dissertations in biblical theology. James Jordan is one of the most insightful biblical scholars of our time. The Jordan Prize exists to encourage more of the deep Scriptural…
“Gender is a social construct,” the transgender apologists tell us, thinking with that single stroke they’ve negated gender roles; that they’ve relegated them to the optional, like what kind of cuisine you prefer. Sure, you may be born Italian but that doesn’t mean you’re now bound, by the expectations of…
Showing page 33 of 309
Showing page 4 of 43
A student suggests that Isaiah 61 is chiastically organized, and centers on verses 5-6, which promise that strangers will pasture the flocks of Israel and that Israel will consume the treasures of the nations. Overall, the passage announces the good news of return, the great Jubilee of Israel’s restoration to…
Accommodation is often trotted out as a way to account for the unscientific language of Scripture. We now know that the earth does not rise and set, but the ancient Hebrews did not know that, and so God accommodated Himself to their (low) level of scientific knowledge when He guided…
Perhaps it’s the JPS Tanakh translation, but it struck me that the Samson narratives manifest the broad comedy of a Babylonian myth or the legends compiled by Levi-Strauss. He goes about tearing lions like lambs, posing riddles, lighting foxes on fire, and so on and on. Only moralistic Christians could…
Leviticus 10 is often cited in support of the Reformed “Regulative Principle of Worship.” It does support that principle, but not if the principle is formulated, as it often is, as “whatever is not commanded is forbidden.” The sin of Nadab and Abihu was offering “strange” or “unauthorized” fire on…
Frank Gorman says that ritual in Bible is means of maintaining order of world against chaos: “ritual must function as a means of ‘manipulating’ the orders of creation. It is the means by which the categories of ‘order’ and ‘chaos’ can be negotiated. Ritual thus must be seen as the…
In his stimulating Clark Lectures (recently published as Grace and Necessity ), Rowan Williams suggests, following David Jones, that there are certain ontological conditions for the possibility of poetry: “the ontology, if we can use that forbidding word here, of a universe that is inextricably both material and significative, where…
Showing page 1945 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
