Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When God created Adam, He gave him both a vision and a responsibility. The big vision was the Dominion Mandate. The more specific calling was to cultivate and guard the Garden. God also told Adam about the gold of Havilah, which was good and beautiful (that is how the Hebrew…
After the death of Jan Hus (1369–1415), his successors, the Hussites, began to develop his thoughts on the theology and practice of the Church, particularly on= the question of the lay chalice. This time, however, it was not a question of whether this should be permitted at all—after all, this…
Imagine a friend of yours got involved in a commune, one of the really crunchy ones that does their own farming and such along with poetry nights and music and art. They’re pretty good at all this, actually. They’re using some really interesting permaculture practices at the communal farm, the…
Genesis 22, the story of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, is one of the more well-known typologically dissected passages in the Bible. But just for the sake of dotting “i”s, here is a quick rundown: The promised son’s appearing was awaited a very long time (Genesis 12:4; 15:2–3; 16:16; 17:17; 21:1–5;…
A Narrative Sermon on Luke 22:24-46 As Luke walked through the rain toward the corner house he was apprehensive. That surprised him. He knew all along that this was the climax of the process—that he would have to present his work to these men before it could be copied and…
In 2004, an article by Slavoj Žižek appeared in Psychoanalytic Review entitled, ‘What Can Psychoanalysis Tell Us About Cyberspace?’ One of the answers that Žižek offers is that cyberspace creates an environment within which the consumer gets to play in a world where there is no God. In his use…
Showing page 5 of 309
Showing page 6 of 43
In the print edition of First Things, Ephraim Radner has some sharp words for Candida Moss’s The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom : “According to Moss’s criteria, if an account of persecution or martyrdom is later than the purported events themselves (hardly easy to…
The presence of a lover can wound. So, of course, can separation. Commenting on the Bride’s search for her lover in the streets of the city, Paul Griffiths writes that “Love’s separation wounds are everywhere in scripture and tradition,” citing Israel’s exile, Peter’s tears, and Mary’s lamentation for her son…
The beloved of the Song can’t respond to Dodi’s call because she doesn’t want to get her feet dirty. After a survey of the biblical data concerning feet, Paul Griffiths ( Song of Songs (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible) , 120 ) concludes: “When the beloved’s lover is read…
Song of Songs 5 is arranged in a modified chiasm: A. Bride Asleep, Dodi (“my beloved”) speaks B. His locks, v 2 C. He extends hand, arouses her belly, v 4; his hand D. She arises: hands drip with myrrh, v 5 B’. Locks, v 12 D’. His lips drip…
Joe Rigney writes to point out that NT Wright’s interpretation of Romans 4:5 (namely, that “justification of the ungodly” is equivalent to “bringing nations into Abraham’s family”) runs up against a problem in Romans 5:6, where Paul tells us that “at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” Joe…
One of Holmes’s targets in The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity is the “de Regnon thesis” that Greek and Latin Trinitarian theology took separate paths, the former being more pluralist and the latter more monist. Like other recent writers, Holmes doesn’t believe…
Showing page 748 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
