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,…
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The Lord’s Supper models a proper meal, but for that very reason it models a properly ordered community, the right order of human society. How we eat together, with whom we eat tells us what kind of community we are. It also presents a model of work, creativity, culture, the…
In a 1972 essay on Les stars , Edgar Morin explains the difference between actors and stars by referring to ancient heroic myths. Stars are heroes of adventure, action, tragedy, and love like the heroes of myths. They are “divinisee et mythique” (39). The star's mythical, quasi-divine status applies both…
In a paper on Academia.edu, Alan Darley of the University of Nottingham examines Thomas's revision of the Pseudo-Dionysian notion of hierarchy, stressing the importance of Scripture in Thomas's revisionary efforts. Along the way, following a number of recent scholars, he highlights the central role of Scripture in the Summa .…
Stephen Greenblatt uses the anthropological theory of Alfred Gell to explain Shakespeare's universal appeal, particularly Gell's notion of the “distributed personality”: This refers to “the ability of an artist to fashion something - Gell called it an ‘index' - that carries agency, his own and that of others, into the…
In an essay in the 1978 collection, Perspectives on Luke-Acts , Donald Miesner explains the chiastic structure of Paul's missionary journey: A. Jerusalem to Antioch, Cyprus, Asia Minor, 12:25-13:14a B. Paul's initial address to Jews at Antioch, 13:14b-52 C. Paul is persecuted at Iconium, gives speech at Lystra, 14:1-28 D.…
The liturgy provides a rich and holistic model of evangelism and discipleship, holding together dimensions of Christian living that often fly apart. The liturgy begins with a call to enter the presence of God; just so, our entry into Christ is not a product of our diligent efforts but the…
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