Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Flying scrolls. Red horses. Beasts coming out of the sea. Winged women. The list goes on. Apocalyptic literature in the Bible is like a cross between science fiction and Marvel comics. And the Bible has a fair bit of this sort of thing. Daniel sees visions in Babylon, Zechariah sees…
Trinity House Institute has taken a new name, the Theopolis Institute. This striking new name expresses our unique vision and mission and captures the unified purpose behind all our specific programs and activities. We still have Bible, liturgy, and culture in our tagline. We still offer the same courses on…
Adam Kotsko offers a socio-political variation on the Christus Victor atonement theory in his 2010 study, The Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation . He does this by explaining "the devil" in terms of the Hegelian concept of "objective spirit," Geist . As Kotsko puts it, Geist "refers…
Two factors keep Nahtali Meshel from discussing the meaning of sacrifice until late in his The "Grammar" of Sacrifice . The first has to do with the texts he draws from: "P says little about the meaning of its rituals" (174). The other has to do with the grammatical theory…
Chapter 5 of Naphtali Meshel's The "Grammar" of Sacrifice focuses on "praxemics," the physical actions of sacrificial ritual. Praxemes are constituted by six elements: an "atomact," an elementary physical act or gesture; an actor; an object that is acted up; a target for the action and often for the object…
Two chapters of Naphtali Meshel’s The “Grammar” of Sacrifice cover what he calls “jugation” and “hierarchies.” The first involves the addition of other materials to an animal offering. Jugates include wine, cereal, and oil that are added to the animals (zoemes) that are offered in sacrifice. Some jugates are coordinated…
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A couple of illuminating quotations from Robert Letham’s fine new book, The Holy Trinity (P&R): Letham defends Origen against charges of heresy and proto-Arianism (while duly noting some of the troubling statements in Origen’s writings), and adds: “Origen is a research theologian, advancing ideas for consideration and discussion as well…
INTRODUCTION Jesus came to reveal the Father, and claims that He is capable of revealing the Father because ?I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?E(John 14:6-9). This notion of ?mutual indwelling?E(the technical term in theology is ?perichoresis?E is an important concern for John?s gospel, and it…
In his Teaching Company tapes on Chaucer, Seth Lehrer claims that the medievals lacked a conception of historical change, and that one of the key cultural effects of the Renaissance was to introduce the idea that things change. This at least needs to be qualified, if not rejected, for two…
It’s mighty hard to find apologists for Bolshevism these days, so I was surprised to find the following in the December 2 issue of the London Review of Books (in Neal Ascherson’s review of the recently republished books on Trotsky by Isaac Deutscher): The Bolshevik Revolution was more “authentic” and…
The book of Ruth is not merely about the individual characters, but about Israel, moving from the barrenness of the period of the judges toward the new birth of the monarchy. Naomi is the barren, bereft Israelite widow, who ends the book with a child her knees and with plenty…
Jesus charges in John 5 that the Jews seek glory from one another rather than the Father. It reminds me of a suggestion (I believe it came from Ken Myers) that the New York Review of Books should change its name to the New York Review of Each Other’s Books…
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