Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The debate over paedocommunion does not seem to have made much headway on either side in recent years. Certainly both sides have made a solid effort to argue for their position. But no resolution seems to be forthcoming in the near future. As a convinced paedocommunionist, I find the church’s…
How do covenant and election relate to one another? There are many issues of semantics that enter into this discussion and many issues of real substance, so we need to be careful. If we oversimplify, we can say that election relates to God’s eternal plan to save a people for…
Shortly after the Last Supper and before his final arrest, Jesus said these words to his remaining eleven faithful disciples: I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit…
Was Caleb saved by faith or works? Caleb is just one of many thousands of Hebrews who entered the Promised Land after spending years in the wilderness being led by Moses. God had delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and gave them a law at Mount Sinai based on…
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5.7) So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of…
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6.1-3). Honor your father and your mother, that your…
Showing page 236 of 309
Showing page 42 of 43
David Goldman (Spengler) acknowledges that “illegal immigration is a bad thing, and the social costs of a mass influx of poor and uneducated migrants from Mexico and Central America are significant.” Yet he doesn't think it is “one of America’s bigger problems.” That is partly because migration has been declining:…
Rebecca Denova( Things Accomplished Among Us ) provides a good summary of the complex pattern of parallelism that structures Luke and Acts. She points to the parallels between the gospel and the apostolic history: “The baptism of Jesus with water in Luke 3 is paralleled by the community's baptism with…
A section of Kant's Conflict of Faculties lays out “Philosophical Principles of Scriptural Exegesis for Settling the Conflict” of faculties. The first rule is that a scriptural text whose theoretical claims transcend reason and morality “may be interpreted in the interests of practical reason.” If it contradicts practical reason, it…
Moses isn't mentioned in Chronicles as much as he is in Exodus-Joshua. Naturally. But that doesn't mean that Moses is unimportant to the Chronicler. As James Sparks notes ( The Chronicler's Genealogies ), Moses is more prominent in Chronicles than in almost every other book outside the Pentateuch. The Chronicler…
According to WTH Jackson's Anatomy of Love , Gottfried of Strausburg's version of the Tristan story marks a critical change from courtly romance. Instead of the shadowy, unknown lady of those poems, she is a real character. Isolde is no mere “psychological catalyst” for Tristan , as Laudine is for…
In a characteristically pithy essay, Robert Jenson has decried the “two paired errors” of traditional atonement theory. On the one hand, the cross is separated “from its future, in the resurrection” and, on the other, from “its past in the canonical history of Israel.” For the apostles, crucifixion is “anything…
Showing page 314 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
