Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
We are too used to reading the Gospels’ stories of Jesus’ arrest, trial, condemnation, and death from a devotional perspective and so we miss a lot of what’s going on. We actually have a difficult time trying to figure out the meaning of the details of the story. Of course,…
This is the first in a series of essays on "Continuing the Reformation." Many different churches descend from the original Protestant Reformation, and those that are the most conservative are often insistent that they are largely if not completely true to the Reformation, or to the branch from which they…
Trinity House fellow James B. Jordan will be teaching a one-day seminar on "How to Read the Bible for the First Time . . . Again" next Friday, February 22, in North London. The event is sponsored by Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Southgate, costs 20 pounds (10 for theology students) and…
Audio Reading of this Post https://theopolis-blogcast.simplecast.com/episodes/a-primer-on-ash-wednesday What is Ash Wednesday? Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, a season focused on the sufferings and cross of Jesus. But Jesus’ death on the cross cannot be separated from the cross we are called to bear in union with him, so…
Welcome to the Trinity House web site. It’s unfinished, as you’ll soon discover, but it’s more finished than it was, and for that we are very grateful. Thanks to David Dalbey for the design, and to my son Sheffield for the execution. Trinity House exists to advance the reformation of…
In our I hope brief blog-versation, Doug Wilson has posted a couple more things to think about. In one he asks who our father/Father is. We either have God or the devil as our father. Well, yes and no. I’m with Doug in what he’s getting at, I think, but…
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Peter Matheson ( Rhetoric of Reformation ) recognizes that polemic is “both necessary and useful” (8). It enables underdogs to gain a foothold, and “enables us to see things as they are. Its caricatures are nearer to the truth than the smooth rhetoric and facile images beloved of politician, businessman…
2 Chronicles 3-4, the Chronicler's account of the temple, uses the phrase “left and right” several times. Jachin and Boaz, the two pillars, are “left and right” at the porch (3:17). Ten basins are set up in two groups of five on the left and right of the court (4:6).…
In her study of Leviticus as Literature , Mary Douglas notes the “house that Jack built” quality of the Levitical descriptions of sacrifice. Priests put animal parts on the wood that is on the fire that is on the altar. Douglas takes this as a sign that Leviticus describes sacrifice…
I n a famous essay on “rites of violence” in sixteenth-century France, Natalie Zemon Davis argued that one motivation behind mob violence was the desire to purge “the community of dreaded pollution. The word ‘pollution' is often on the lips of the violent, and the concept serves well to sum…
T he Chronicler's account of the construction of Solomon's temple (2 Chronicles 3:1-5:1) follows the creation week of Genesis 1 in general and in specific details. In general, the account moves from a description of the dimensions, materials and adornments of the three zones of the temple (porch, palace, most…
R obert Scribner doesn't think Protestantism “disenchanted” the world. Reformers did attack certain forms of medieval “magic.” They rejected “sacramentals,” which were “functional” rituals that could be used as protection against devils. This didn't produce a “buffered” world, impervious to outside influence. No one surpassed Luther in his obsession with…
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