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Writing

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

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Advent

Why Stalker Should be Added to Your Christmas Watchlist

Stalker is a Soviet-era film by Andrei Tarkovsky in which an enigmatic location comes into existence either through an alien crash or a nuclear disaster; the film never makes it clear, but knowing Tarkovsky’s criticism of the spectacle nature of the alien motif after his own filming of Solaris and…

by Garrett SoucyDecember 19, 2023
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Motherhood

A Greater Capacity

I was scrolling through Instagram on the night of Thanksgiving, the only one awake (as usual), coming down from my extrovert-high after all the conversation and merriment of the day, when I came across a post that stopped me in my tracks. The post contained a picture-perfect image of some…

by Lindsey MurphyDecember 18, 2023
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Theopolis News

The 2024 James B. Jordan Prize

The Theopolis Institute is pleased to announce the fourth round of the James B. Jordan Prize to honor outstanding doctoral dissertations in biblical theology. James Jordan is one of the most insightful biblical scholars of our time. The Jordan Prize exists to encourage more of the deep Scriptural investigation of…

by Peter LeithartDecember 15, 2023
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Eschatology

What Kind of Story Is History?

Suppose I were to write three versions of a story. In every version, the first half of the book looks forward to the coming of the king. There are promises about him and about how glorious his kingdom will be, about how his kingdom will fill the earth with peace…

by John BarachDecember 12, 2023
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Galatians

Re-Considering Doug Wilson's "Covenant with Hagar"

Introduction Doug Wilson’s American Milk and Honey is now available. There’s a great deal in the book worth commenting on, and I anticipate engaging with that material more broadly in the near future. In the lead up to its release, however, Moscow has not been silent concerning Israel, the Jews,…

by Gabe HarderDecember 11, 2023
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Parables

The Older Son

Our telling of the Prodigal Son parable usually (and rightly) focuses on the runaway younger brother: the lost son returns, and his father joyfully and graciously receives him. But the full story has an additional element: an angry older brother. Jesus uses the older brother to rebuke the religious leaders…

by Tim NicholsDecember 6, 2023

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birds

Ornitheology

Basics of the biblical symbolism of birds 1)Birds were created on Day 5 of the creation week, along with swarmers of the sea, i.e., fish. Earlier, Elohim had formed earth into a three-decker house, firmament above, earth beneath, waters under the earth. He fills the firmament on Day 4 (with…

February 27, 2019
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Metaphysics

Act & Potency

A highlight from the latest edition of Mars Hill Audio . If you're not a subscriber, shame on you.D.C. Schindler explains the significance of the classical claim that actuality is prior to potentiality. It means that potential is limited (and also unleashed) by the particular thing that a thing is.…

February 25, 2019
thomas-aquinas

Thomas on the Ten

Thomas Aquinas ( ST I-II, q. 100, art. 5) compares the role of law in human communities with the role of divine law in the commonwealth of men under God: “just as the precepts of human law direct man in his relations to the human community, so the precepts of…

February 20, 2019
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Counting to Ten

In an essay in a Festschrift for Daniel Block (available here ), Jason DeRouchie wants to teach us to count to ten, as in Ten Commandments. He examines the Hebrew cantillation signs, discourse features, stylistic elements of the Ten to settle which of the various numbering systems is preferable. One…

February 18, 2019
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Metaphysics

Mythic Metaphysics

The "shadow" of sacrificial, tragic mythos, writes David Bentley Hart (in an essay on the First Word in I Am the Lord Your God ), "falls across the philosophical schools of antiquity" (63). Ancient philosophy wasn't, in short, a systematization of obvious common sense, but of ancient common sense. Which…

February 13, 2019
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Sexuality

Sexual Anarchy, Political Tyranny

In the second volume of Robert Jenson’s Systematic Theology (2001), he discusses the Ten Words. His treatment of “Thou shalt not commit adultery” is profoundly important. Sexuality is the intersection of sensuality and reproduction. Sensuality is “the sheer fact that the subject is drawn to an object; it is captivation…

February 12, 2019

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