Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The “second Reformation” introduced Reformed liturgy and teaching into Lutheran Germany. This was seen by some as a continuation of the Reformation and a purgation of Catholic remnants. The effort to carry on “further reformation” led to disputes with Lutherans. As Bodo Nischan has put it, the hottest debate in…
In J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century , Tom Shippey observes that Bilbo is a member of the middle class, a bourgeois. Bilbo does not have any servants, but his hole is “the home of a member of the Victorian upper-middle class of Tolkien’s nineteenth-century youth, full of…
Idolatry has deprived Israel of her senses. This was one of the early messages to Isaiah (Isaiah 6). Yahweh sent him out to a people who had been deprived of their senses because of their commitment to idols. They become like the idols they serve. They still have eyes, but…
In the current climate of Trinitarian discussion concerning personhood, it's good to reach back to David Bentley Hart's treatment of the subject in his wonderful Beauty of the Infinite . Hart addresses the dangers of misreading Rahner’s rule, namely, the danger of dissolving the ontological Trinity into the economic. In…
Chris Kou is the oldest son of Chinese immigrants. Chris and his brothers run a branding and marketing business, Imagineering, in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. In his spare time, he takes online courses from Reformed Theological Seminary, and aspires to be a pastor. Chris is also one of our…
The following was delivered as the Solemn Charge and Exhortation to Theopolis students beginning the Easter term course on Architecture and Liturgical Space . As we will be reminded repeatedly throughout the week, the Bible has a lot to say about building and buildings. Long stretches of Exodus, Kings, Chronicles,…
Showing page 115 of 309
Showing page 40 of 43
Once upon a time, Europeans believed that the order of the world was the result of God's providential guidance of all things. Along came Newton, who demonstrates that the world was a machine that operated by laws that could be described in mathematical terms. As Jonathan Sheehan and Dror Warhman…
The Ten Words (Exodus 20) are organized in two sets of five commandments, one pertaining to our relationship to God and the other our relationships with one another. James Jordan has argued that the two sets of five run in parallel. The five words about worship match the five words…
Thomas asks whether the Father delivered the Son to the Passion ( ST III, 47, 3). His answer is Yes, and he gives a proof text: Romans 8:32. But the way he explicates that affirmative answer is worthy of attention. He starts by emphasizing that Christ “suffered voluntarily out of…
Israel suffers the first cycle of plagues along with the Egyptians. Their water turns to blood; their homes are infested with frogs; the dust of Goshen clings to them in the form of gnats. With the fourth plague, Yahweh begins to make a distinction between Israel and Egypt: “I will…
The church has faced many challenges in her two thousand year history. Bishops and priests evangelized Romans and barbarians. Adventurous monks settled on the frontiers of Europe. Bold missionaries traveled to the remotest peoples on the planet. Never before, though, has the church been called to ministry in a society…
Isaiah prophesies that the Lord will bring Israel out of Babylon as He brought them from Egypt, in a new exodus. He draws on events of the first exodus to describe what will happen again. For example: “I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst…
Showing page 319 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
