Theopolis Logo

Writing

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

See all
screen-shot-2022-05-12-at-12-07-23-pm
1 John

A Proposal to Read 1 John Considering Genesis 1-6 | Part 2

Part 2: Parallels Between Genesis 3, 1 John, and Revelation 2 Following part 1 that delineated the connectivity between 1 John 1-4 and Genesis 1-5, more evidence for the parallel between Genesis 3 and 1 John is found in the book’s parallel to the message to Ephesus in Revelation 2.…

by Matthew TibudanOctober 6, 2022
screen-shot-2022-05-12-at-12-07-23-pm
1 John

A Proposal to Read 1 John Considering Genesis 1-6

Part 1: Proposal to Read 1 John Considering Genesis 1-6 Introduction Many authors have recognized that the prologue of 1 John is related to the same author's Gospel and to the first line of Genesis. However, commentators have not noticed that John alludes to the themes in Genesis 1-6. The…

by Matthew TibudanOctober 4, 2022
223037fgsdl
Colossians

Children in the Lord: Colossians 3:20

I should begin by declaring my bias: I believe that the book of Colossians was written by the apostle Paul around AD 60, during the Roman imprisonment recorded in Acts 28. Douglas Moo offers a detailed defense of Pauline authorship, including dating the book in AD 60 during Paul’s Roman…

by Ralph Allan SmithSeptember 27, 2022
scancode-productions-bww7iiexixq-unsplash
Pastoral Ministry

Don’t Feed the Play-Preachers

There’s a rule of on-line life: don’t feed the trolls. There’s a kind of person on social media who is desperate for attention and so provokes arguments just so he can be at the center of the fray. He’s called a “troll.” The common advice: don’t feed the trolls. Don’t…

by John CarpenterSeptember 20, 2022
skyler-gerald-akljfvj5ym4-unsplash
Ephesians

How We Get Ephesians 2 Wrong | Part Two: Evangelism & Conversion

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—-among whom we all once lived in the passions of…

by Mark HorneSeptember 13, 2022
hbz-queen-elizabeth-through-the-years-00-index-gettyimages-515462734-1555601021
Culture

The Death of the Queen and a Christian Understanding of Sovereignty

On Thursday, September 8 th 2022, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died. She was our longest-reigning monarch; the magnitude of her presence in the United Kingdom’s life defies most superlatives. The first of her fifteen British prime ministers was Winston Churchill; she appointed her final one, Liz Truss—who was born…

by Alastair RobertsSeptember 12, 2022

Showing page 39 of 309

See all
See all

Breaking the Dividing Wall

At the beginning of her discussion of Christian architecture in the Renaissance and Reformation, Jeanne Kilde ( Sacred Power, Sacred Space: An Introduction to Christian Architecture and Worship ) writes: “In the Renaissance period, the medieval notion of the church as the City of Heaven yielded to new ideas about…

July 3, 2012

Hermeneutics of the gift

John Paul II’s meditations on creation as gift in Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body (180-1) are deeply stimulating. He begins from the observation that the gift of creation is a “radical” gift, that is, a gift that constitutes the recipient in the giving, “an…

July 3, 2012

Sons of God, Daughters of men

In Piers the Plowman (9), William Langland recounts the story of the sons of God and the daughters of men. Though he extrapolates from the text, he gets the story right (I am quoting from the Penguin Classics edition, Piers the Ploughman (Penguin Classics) ): “All Cain’s progeny came to…

July 2, 2012
Art

Secret of productivity

Hyde ( The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property , 50-51) distinguishes between “work” and “labor.” The first is what we do by the hour. Labor has its own pace, and there is no timetable or tool to make it work more efficiency: “Writing a poem, developing a…

July 1, 2012
Uncategorized

Labor of gratitude

Lewis Hyde has some wonderful reflections on the “labor of gratitude” in his The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (47-51): With “transformative gifts,” the recipient of the gift “feels gratitude. I would like to speak of gratitude as a labor undertaken by the soul to effect the…

July 1, 2012
Biblical Studies

Girard’s limits

Godbout ( The World of the Gift , 209-10) gives this searing critique of Girard. For Girard, he says, “violence is primary . . . no love is possible. There are only hatred and ‘desire.’” Girard’s own analysis undercuts his theory: “In his discussion of the judgment of Solomon, Girard…

July 1, 2012

Showing page 892 of 2212

Browse by Category

In Medias Res

Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.

Donate

Theopolis is nearly 100% donor-supported. Consider joining us on our mission.