Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
This essay is adapted from my articles in Theopolis’s In Medias Res as a series of Holy Week meditations. Like many celebrities such as Kanye or Beyoncé or Adele, Josquin des Prez (d. 1521) was often known only by his first name, in his own time as now. “Josquin” is…
Sight is a major theme in the scriptures. The church has long identified sight’s relationship to the future fulfillment of the eschaton. As Paul says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1 Cor 13.12). Sight is associated with…
What is the chief end of man? —yes, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But how ought man–and all creation–so glorify him? I propose a Theopolitan addition to the catechism, question and answer number 1.5, begun in the last question and answered as follows: Earth’s inhabitants were created to…
Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. Genesis 49:21 Frederick Buechner once said, “We move into the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” In poetry, this happens by way of a compressed code of analogs; often, two or more very ordinary things begin to reveal something that…
The evangelical milieu of America has often lost a vision of the fruit of repentance. We tend to simplify repentance by asking for forgiveness. After all, Jesus tells Peter to forgive 70 times 7. This verse must be paired with Paul’s scoffing at the question: why not sin more so…
I. The hemorrhaging woman. En route to Jairus’ house, Jesus is touched by a woman with a hemorrhage of blood (Matt 9:18–26; Mk 5:21–34; Lk 8:40–48). The story is one that many of us know very well. She has been yoked to her illness for twelve years, all of her…
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Odd thing: John’s gospel has more references to God’s will and choice and election than any other gospel. But in two cases, Jesus insists that He chose the disciples in the context of talking about Judas. John 6:70: “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of…
Odd thing: John’s gospel has more references to God’s will and choice and election than any other gospel. But in two cases, Jesus insists that He chose the disciples in the context of talking about Judas. John 6:70: “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of…
Sermon outline for September 28: Luke 8:1-56 INTRODUCTION Luke likes to organize his gospel into triads. In chapter 7, there were a series of triadic patterns: Jesus asks three times “What did you go into the wilderness to see?” (vv. 24-26), the sinful woman does threefold homage to Jesus (washing,…
From Derrida, still talking about the analogy of father-son and origin-speech: the father is not the generator or procreator in any “real” sense prior to or outside all relation to language. In what way, indeed, is the father/son relation distinguishable from a mere cause/effect or generator/engendered relation, if not by…
Back to thinking about Derrida, Hesiod, fathers, and sons. If the origin of speech is, as Derrida says, the “father” of the discourse, then the opposing myths of father-son (i.e., Hesiod and the gospel) are also opposing theories of signification and language. Derrida is of Hesiod’s tribe, who believes that…
James Smith of Calvin College has an important analysis of Catherine Pickstock’s attempt to conflate Christian incarnation and Platonic participation in his book, Speech and Theology (in the Radical Orthodoxy series). He admits that participation can affirm the material and bodily as instruments for the soul’s salvation, but questions whether…
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