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Writing

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

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Wisdom

iMago Moi

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27 In an ever-increasing barrage of self-obsession and tailor-made realities, how does the Christian navigate the waters of being someone who experiences life in the first person…

by Garrett SoucySeptember 29, 2020
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Economics

Theses on Church Music and Economics

American church music is in a slump. To get out of the slump, we need a 10-year plan, a 50-year plan, and a 100-year plan. Many are doing extraordinary work on reforming church music in the near-term, and a few in the mid-term. What is desperately needed is the 100-year…

by John AhernSeptember 22, 2020
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Parables

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man

The following is an excerpt from The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics ¸ by Jerry Bowyer (New York, Fidelis Books, Post Hill Press, 2020), release date Sept. 15 th . The section below argues that the ‘Rich Man’ in the parable refers…

by Jerry BowyerSeptember 15, 2020
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Biblical Studies

Death on a Tree: Absalom as Jesus-Type

Could Absalom be a Christ-type? If you know much about the Bible, you likely have an immediate aversion to even the possibility of answering this question in the affirmative. Absalom was third among David’s sons, while Amnon—his brother from another mother—was first (2 Sam. 3:2-3). As Absalom’s story begins, it…

by Eric RobinsonSeptember 8, 2020
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Biblical Studies

Barabbas

All four Gospels not only associate Barabbas and Jesus quite unabashedly, they do so emphatically and with a deep theological message. The scene is well-known. In His trial before Pontius Pilate, though Jesus had been declared innocent more than once, there seemed to be no hope of releasing Him. Pilate…

by Ralph Allan SmithSeptember 1, 2020
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Theopolis News

Announcement: The James B. Jordan Prize

The Theopolis Institute is pleased to announce the second round of the James B. Jordan Prize to honor outstanding doctoral dissertations in biblical theology. James Jordan is one of the most insightful biblical scholars of our time. The Jordan Prize exists to encourage more of the deep Scriptural investigation of…

by TheopolisAugust 31, 2020

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Etymology

Peter Cotterell and Max Turner summarize James Barr’s case against etymology, dismissing TF Torrance’s claims about the links between ekklesia and kaleo , qahal and qol : “Even if qahal derives from qol , ‘voice’, (which is no more than merely possible ) it remains highly questionable whether anyone would…

July 18, 2008

Emotive Speech

Ogden and Richards, whose triangle of signification (word, concept, reference) has had a significant impact in evangelical hermeneutics, begin their book on the “meaning of meaning” by acknowledging that words have other functions than referential, “which may be grouped together as emotive. These can best be examined when the framework…

July 18, 2008

Unending lawsuit

In his book, Liturgies and Trials , Richard Fenn writes, “The individual is perpetually facing judgment by abstract and impersonal criteria that are only partially revealed while always calling into question the individual’s own sense of worthiness . . . the theme of the ‘last judgment’ loses its theological framework,…

July 16, 2008

Justification and modern man

In Arthur Miller’s After the Fall , a character says, “When you’re young, you prove how brave you are, or smart; when what a good lover; then a good father; finally how wise or powerful or what-the-hell-ever. But underlying it all, I see now, there was a presumption. That I…

July 16, 2008

Higher criticism

I like J. Louis Martyn. His commentary on Galatians is a masterpiece, and the other essays I’ve read are all very stimulating. I begin with a disclaimer because what has been called Martyn’s “seminal proposal” concerning the gospel of John is remarkable mainly for the absence of evidence and argument.…

July 16, 2008
History

Civilization of Word

In the introduction to his Elements of Semiology (1964), Roland Barthes argues that for all the icons and images that surround us, we remain a civilization of the word: “Semiology has so far concerned itself with codes of no more than slight interest, such as the Highway Code; the moment…

July 15, 2008

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