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Writing

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

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Democracy

The Babylonian Unity of the Church

There are many legitimate reasons to lament the divided state of the church. Fleshly pride, theological hubris, sectarian rivalries are each in their own ways modern versions of the Galatian heresy, refusing table fellowship with brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. And denominations have frequently played the same role…

by Toby SumpterJune 23, 2015
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Theopolis News

Bogumil Jarmulak

Though Bogumil Jarmulak was not able to deliver his lectures on Jurgen Moltmann due to flight delays, he preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church on Sunday morning, June 14. He encouraged the church in how to deal with misery in this life, and pointed them to their only hope in life…

by Brian MoatsJune 18, 2015
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History

Christians, Liturgy, and the Past, 2

Connecting with the past within the present is a complicated endeavor. One of the most immediate challenges facing us is that of ensuring that, as Christians, our use of the past is undertaken in service of present faithfulness. The past is not a realm to which we retreat, but a…

by Alastair RobertsJune 18, 2015
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Theopolis News

Letter From Peter Leithart

Dear friend of Theopolis, Before he attended the Theopolis course on Holistic Mission during Easter term, 2014, Jonathan Sedlak lived with his family in the quiet, comfortable Milwau­kee suburb of Slinger, Wisconsin. An intensive week in Birmingham changed all that. Listening to missionary Wes Baker and hashing over readings and…

by TheopolisJune 16, 2015
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Architecture

The Crystalline Vision: Bauhaus and the Bible

“What is in the nature of these materials?” The Bauhaus, founded in Germany in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius, had a profound influence in every area of design, from graphics and typography to clothing, furniture and architecture. The institution was not so much a style as a method, its philosophy…

by Mike BullJune 11, 2015
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Books

The American Way of Being Church

​Russell Richey's ​Denominationalism collects some of the most important essays on its titled topic. The authors are a who's-who of 20th century American religious history: Winthrop Hudson, Timothy L. Smith, Sidney Mead, Richey himself, H. Richard Niebuhr and Martin Marty. Some are broad synthetic studies; others are more granular studies…

by Peter LeithartJune 10, 2015

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Economics

Rational Actors

Featherstone claims that economics has generally focused on the production rather than the consumption side of things, perhaps because of “the assumption that consumption was unproblematic because it was based upon the concept of rational individuals buying goods to maximize their satisfaction.” Only in the late 19th century was attention…

September 13, 2006
History

Elites and the Market

Cultural elites have, Featherstone suggests, an inherently ambivalent relationship with the market. His argument, if I understand it, goes something like this: Cultural elites want to preserve a monopolization of cultural products. Hence, for instance, peer review of scholarly work; work that hasn’t passed peer review can be dismissed as…

September 13, 2006
History

McDonald’s and Postmodernity

McDonald’s provides a helpful glimpse at the complexities surrounding postmodernity. On the one hand, the global reach of McDonald’s seems a perfect illustration of one part of the postmodern situation - the global diffusion of American culture and tastes, the plasticity and airiness of postmodern culture, the breaching of national…

September 13, 2006
History

McDonald’s and Postmodernity

McDonald’s provides a helpful glimpse at the complexities surrounding postmodernity. On the one hand, the global reach of McDonald’s seems a perfect illustration of one part of the postmodern situation - the global diffusion of American culture and tastes, the plasticity and airiness of postmodern culture, the breaching of national…

September 13, 2006
History

Postmodernism and Globalization

Though often conceived as a crisis within Western civilization, postmodernism, Featherstone argues, is partly impelled by globalization. Globalization, he begins, usually conveys two images - the spread of a single, increasingly uniform culture throughout the world, and the “compression” or layering and juxtaposition of various cultures within a particular location…

September 13, 2006
History

Consumer Culture and Fragmentation

Culture, Mike Featherstone suggests in Undoing Culture , becomes problematic in consumer societies. How? As developed in cultural anthropology, culture is “somehow homologous to the distinctions, differences, and divisions between social groups who unconsciously use culture as relatively fixed markers in status games.” But in consumer societies, there is little…

September 12, 2006

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