Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I grew up on the north side of Chicago. My parents were evangelicals and I was raised in the faith. I graduated from a large public high school in which practicing Christians were very few and very far between (though nominal Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox were in abundance), which…
During the recent round table discussion on the future of Protestantism , Peter Leithart advocated a much greater degree of unity in the Church than we presently enjoy. Another participant in the discussion wondered aloud how Leithart's vision would be different from the ministerial associations that presently exist in many…
"But he, wanting to justify himself, said, 'And who is my neighbor?' And Jesus said to him, 'First, your neighbors are the people in your church, then the ones with whom you enjoy greatest doctrinal or ecclesiastical commonality, then those with whom you enjoy less commonality.'" -Said Jesus... never Since…
A number of years ago, I came across something in the Puritan Thomas Goodwin in regard to John 17:22. Goodwin points out that Jesus prays that they (the disciples) might be given the glory of the Father as a means to an end. The end is unity, and the means…
In her prize-winning book, Gilead , Marilynne Robinson uses the pastoral settings of Iowa to challenge ministers to live up to their high callings. One of the most powerful themes in the novel is the pastor’s power to “bless.” The tension in the novel builds as we watch Rev. Ames…
One of the few glaring errors of the Protestant Reformers was the failure to welcome children back to the Lord's Table. Something that seems to go along with this was the exclusion of other kinds of Christians, primarily Roman Catholics, from Holy Communion in Protestant churches. Exclusion of Roman Catholics…
Showing page 174 of 309
Showing page 7 of 43
The Lamb receives a scroll that is sealed with seven seals (Revelation 5). One by one, He breaks the seals, and but that un-sealing climaxes with a sealing: During the sixth seal, an angel seals 144,000, 12,000 from twelve tribes (Revelation 7). The literary pattern reinforces this movement. The word…
Joseph is the bow-tribe, according to Genesis 49:23-24: Though attached by archers, his hands are strong to respond. Psalm 78:9 tells us that Ephraim, the largest sub-tribe of Joseph, is also a tribe of bowmen. But, referring to a battle recorded in Judges 20, the Psalm indicates that Ephraim’s bowmen…
“Stars are suddenly formed in the heavens themselves,” Pliny writes in his Natural History (II.22). “Of these there are various kinds.” He goes on to enumerate them: “The Greeks name these stars comets ; we name them Crinitæ, as if shaggy with bloody locks, and surrounded with bristles like hair.…
Adam Johnson’s God’s Being in Reconciliation examines the work of Karl Barth in order to show how “Barth’s understanding of God’s triune being-in-act . . . provides the proper theological framework for developing the doctrine of the atonement” (10). Johnson argues that earlier studies of the Trinitarian framework for atonement…
Artists can be awfully protective of their work. In his forthcoming Copyright Wars , Peter Baldwin observes that Samuel Beckett “objected . . . when directors performed his plays with women, non-white casts, or incidental music. He sued the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge for playing Endgame in an abandoned…
As long as he’s in heaven preying on the child of the woman, he is called “dragon” (Revelation 12). Once cast down, his titles multiply: The dragon is also the archaic serpent, called the devil and Satan. A fourfold name for the “ruler of this world” who is cast out…
Showing page 560 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
