Theopolis Logo

Writing

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

See all
untitled-design
Culture

True Humanism: Jesus, Marx, or Jenner?

Many contemporary thought leaders have spoken intriguingly about a future without Jesus or, to be more precise, a future in which the transcendent truths of the Christian faith hold little or no sway over society. More to the point, these thought leaders often pose as anthropologists who find Christianity dehumanizing…

by Bruce AshfordMarch 15, 2022
screen-shot-2022-03-08-at-10-58-44-am
Biblical Theology

Jesus Wept: A Prologomena to a Biblical Theology of Healing

Jeffery Bishop’s magisterial The Anticipatory Corpse concludes with a question: “Might it not be that only theology can save medicine?” 1 To that question I want to give not merely a general affirmation, but a particular affirmation. Not only can “only theology save medicine” but, in fact, only a biblical…

by Mark BriansMarch 8, 2022
kyler-nixon-urkdeazlvtq-unsplash
How to Worship

Songs of Mature Reflection: Toward a Theopolitan Hymnody

John Ahern recently made the case on this site for having shorter hymnals. “ I believe hymnals should be shorter than they are ”, he says. “ Much shorter. 100 hymns at most. ” Swap hymnal for “repertoire”, or “hymns” for “worship songs” and it all still applies. A big…

by Rhys LavertyMarch 1, 2022
psalms
Course Announcement

Regional Course: How to Sing the Psalms

The Psalter is the hymnbook of the church. For too long, the psalter has taken a far-secondary place in the worship of God's people. And when psalms are sung, they are often changed drastically from what the Spirit gave us. In this course, Paul Buckley and Brian Moats will explore…

by Brian MoatsFebruary 28, 2022
beige-and-brown-child-photo-moms-collection-youtube-intro-2
Theopolis News

Jordan Prize Winner

The Theopolis Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Trevor Laurence is the winner of the 2021 James B. Jordan Prize for outstanding work in biblical theology. Dr. Laurence receives this award for his 2020 Exeter dissertation, “Cursing With God: The Imprecatory Psalms and the Ethics of Christian Prayer.” Laurence…

by Peter LeithartFebruary 25, 2022
48986
Culture

Mark Driscoll, Ergun Caner and the Factions and Fictions of Evangelicalism

In late 2013 two nearly simultaneous events happened in evangelicaldom: Mark Driscoll was publicly accused of “plagiarism” and Ergun Caner was hired as the president of a Christian college. The first appears to be the first domino that would lead eventually to Driscoll resigning as the pastor of Mars Hill…

by John CarpenterFebruary 22, 2022

Showing page 46 of 309

See all

Showing page 5 of 43

See all

The Truth of Fiction

A fine statement from Iris Murdoch on the capacity of literature to seek and reveal truth: "I think that though they are so different, philosophy and literature are both truth-seeking and truth-revealing activities. They are cognitive activities, explanations. Literature, like other arts, involves exploration, classification, discrimination, organized vision. Of course…

February 9, 2018

Genealogy of Atheism

Gavin Hyman ( A Short History of Atheism ) doesn't think contemporary atheists are aware of the origins and cultural conditions of their own unfaith. They suffer from "a lack of awareness of atheism’s own origins, of the historical, philosophical and cultural matrix out of which it emerged, of its…

February 9, 2018

After Millman-Lord

In Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece , Rosalind Thomas surveys the current state of Homeric studies. In the background is the Millman-Lord thesis that the epics are the product of oral improvisation. Thomas discerns two schools: “On the one hand, the formulaic theory of Parry and Lord is being…

February 9, 2018

Triune Worker

Thomas Schirrmacher ( God Want You to Learn, Labor, and Love ) outlines a Trinitarian conception of labor. Work, like all human activity, has its uncreated origin in God. We are able to work because we are made in the image of a God of labor: "In the Bible, man’s…

February 8, 2018

Is God an Object?

Robert Jenson addresses this perennial question ( Systematic Theology , 1.228-9) in a characteristically Jensonian fashion, by reminding us of the dynamics of discourse: "In all true mutual discourse . . . each must be both subject for and object of the other. As I am present to address you,…

February 8, 2018
Music

How the Church Lost Its Soundscape

The following was first published in 2011 at Firstthings.com . “By the twelfth century,” Christopher Page writes in his magisterial The Christian West and Its Singers (2010), “the Latin West could be imagined as a soundscape of Latin chant.” From the eighth-century alliance of Pope Stephen with the Frankish King…

February 7, 2018

Showing page 97 of 2212

Browse by Category

In Medias Res

Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.

Donate

Theopolis is nearly 100% donor-supported. Consider joining us on our mission.