Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
One of the main characters of That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis is Mark Studdock, who was a sociologist but his true passion was being a part of the so called “inner circle.” He wanted to belong to the elite that would bestow glory and power. On the other…
The first Pentecost meant many things, fulfilling many types, shadows, and prophecies from the Old Testament. Pentecost marked the beginning of a new creation, and a new humanity. Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters of the original formless and void creation to shape and fill it, so the…
Clint Hail has had an exciting, varied life. A West Point graduate and a former infantry officer, he now serves as Community Transformation Director in Costa Rica for e3 Partners Ministries. Clint has also attended two Theopolis Institute courses. Clint recently told Theopolis about his experiences in the military, his…
Before the summer is out, the US Supreme Court will hand down a decision in Obergefell v. Hodges , the same-sex marriage case. Every other week, ISIS releases a new video of masked fighters beheading Christians, and the rest of the Middle East is in chaos. Boko Haram terrorizes parts…
The Theopolis Institute Board added three new Board members at its semi-annual Board meeting on May 16: Dr. Roy Atwood, Pastor Uri Brito, and Rod Olps, Jr. Formerly President of New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, Atwood was recently appointed Abraham Kuyper Distinguished Professor of Classics at Morthland College…
The kingdom of God has come upon us, Jesus said. The justice of God is revealed in the gospel, Paul said. Whoever is in Christ, there is new creation. Isaiah's visions of lions and lambs and a peaceable kingdom are visions about the effect of the Messiah's first advent. If…
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Students of Ancient Near Eastern religions and cultures have typically assumed that the peoples of the ANE operated, like ancient Israelites, with a dichotomy of holy and profane. Beate Pongratz-Leisten doubts this, both for Mesopotamia and for Israel. The notion that this dichotomy is a universal religious structures goes back…
K. van der Toorn has a 1989 article summarizing the purity system of ancient Mesopotamia. He describes purity rules as a form of temple etiquette. What makes something unclean is not that it is immoral but that it is displeasing in a particular setting, in this case displeasing before the…
Rivka and Moshe Ulmer summarize rabbinic teaching about charitable giving in Righteous Giving to the Poor . The book includes an overview of rabbinic literature in general before it gets to its main topic. Rich in quotation, the section on tzedakah examines the theological underpinnings of charity, the this- and…
Lida V. Nedilsky’s Converts to Civil Society is a sociological study of civil society in contemporary Hong Kong. But the use of the religious term “convert” is not accidental. Nedilsky argues that Christian conversion in Hong Kong opens up possibilities for other forms of voluntary association, both religious and non-religious.…
Ole Bjerg ( Making Money ) doesn’t believe the classic “commodity” accounts of the rise of money, found in both Adam Smith and Marx. Both posit an original barter economy that is made more efficient by the introduction of a commodity that is used as a medium of exchange. Bjerg…
Gerd Theissen’s contribution to The Depth of the Human Person sharply challenges mainstream views of Paul’s anthropology. It’s not that Paul’s theory is holistic rather than dualistic. That assumption is based on a faulty understanding of ancient anthropology. A holistic anthropology doesn’t necessarily imply a positive view of the body,…
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