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Writing

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

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Democracy

The Babylonian Unity of the Church

There are many legitimate reasons to lament the divided state of the church. Fleshly pride, theological hubris, sectarian rivalries are each in their own ways modern versions of the Galatian heresy, refusing table fellowship with brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. And denominations have frequently played the same role…

by Toby SumpterJune 23, 2015
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Theopolis News

Bogumil Jarmulak

Though Bogumil Jarmulak was not able to deliver his lectures on Jurgen Moltmann due to flight delays, he preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church on Sunday morning, June 14. He encouraged the church in how to deal with misery in this life, and pointed them to their only hope in life…

by Brian MoatsJune 18, 2015
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History

Christians, Liturgy, and the Past, 2

Connecting with the past within the present is a complicated endeavor. One of the most immediate challenges facing us is that of ensuring that, as Christians, our use of the past is undertaken in service of present faithfulness. The past is not a realm to which we retreat, but a…

by Alastair RobertsJune 18, 2015
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Theopolis News

Letter From Peter Leithart

Dear friend of Theopolis, Before he attended the Theopolis course on Holistic Mission during Easter term, 2014, Jonathan Sedlak lived with his family in the quiet, comfortable Milwau­kee suburb of Slinger, Wisconsin. An intensive week in Birmingham changed all that. Listening to missionary Wes Baker and hashing over readings and…

by TheopolisJune 16, 2015
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Architecture

The Crystalline Vision: Bauhaus and the Bible

“What is in the nature of these materials?” The Bauhaus, founded in Germany in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius, had a profound influence in every area of design, from graphics and typography to clothing, furniture and architecture. The institution was not so much a style as a method, its philosophy…

by Mike BullJune 11, 2015
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Books

The American Way of Being Church

​Russell Richey's ​Denominationalism collects some of the most important essays on its titled topic. The authors are a who's-who of 20th century American religious history: Winthrop Hudson, Timothy L. Smith, Sidney Mead, Richey himself, H. Richard Niebuhr and Martin Marty. Some are broad synthetic studies; others are more granular studies…

by Peter LeithartJune 10, 2015

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Gift

Pure Gift and Promise

Since Mauss re-discovered the truism that there ain’t no such thing as a free gift, philosophers and theologians have fretted over the broken promise of the “pure gift” - a no-strings gift, a gift without expectation of return. It’s a Kantian deformation of an evangelical hope; but it’s bound to…

January 28, 2015

Brother v. Brother

When the original creation is set up, there are three zones in the material creation: heaven, earth, and sea. Corresponding to this threefold classification are the three zones on the land: garden, land, world. These are already mapped in the creation before sin, and especially after the fall they are…

January 28, 2015

Hierarchy and Oppression

To punish Israel’s sins, Yahweh threatens to remove “the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water” (Isaiah 3:1). It sounds like a drought and famine, but as the passage goes on, the drought is a drought of leadership. Yahweh will remove bread and water insofar as he…

January 27, 2015

Living the Movies

In the NYTBR , the redoubtable Tom Shone reviews a couple of recent books that explore the borderlands between movies and live. Shone points out the paradox that all movie-lovers experience. We can’t live the movies. “A life lived at a constant pitch of screwball comedy is a recipe for…

January 27, 2015
Mathematics

Primes

Alec Wilkinson’s New Yorker profile of mathematician Yitang Zhang is a fascinating character sketch and an introduction to the world of pure mathematics. Along the way, Wilkinson lists some of the wonders and mysteries of prime numbers: “No formula predicts the occurrence of primes—they behave as if they appear randomly.…

January 27, 2015

Portrait of the Artist

Many things contribute to the fidgety discomfort one feels one reading Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice . There’s our entry into the mind of Gustav Aschenbach, an aging, highly sensitive, very famous writer. There’s the Lolita infatuation he has with Tadzio, a “beautiful” Polish boy whom Aschenbach watches from his…

January 27, 2015

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