Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Minister: What is the true and right knowledge of God? Child: When we know Him in order that we may honor Him. 1 Recently, a friend confessed to me a serious intellectual issue he was having that was blocking his ability to believe and trust in Christ. We talked about…
We exist to renew the church for the sake of the world. We are scaffolding to help Christians rebuild God’s heavenly city that renews the cities of men. To faithfully carry out this task, we need your help . Theopolis eats, drinks, breathes donations. A trickle of money comes in…
In March of 2022, Uri Brito, Presiding Minister of the CREC, asked Peter Leithart to address the pastors of Athanasius Presbytery. Here is what he said to these good men. Thank you, Pastor Brito. I’m honored to speak to the Athanasius Presbytery this morning. And I want to take the…
Increasingly, I have been made aware of an idea and practice floating around in Reformed circles of the need for heads of household membership in a church, with its sometimes attendant practice of “male-heads-of-household voting.” What follows are my thoughts on the practice. The Nature of Church Membership For an…
What kind of future should we expect before the return of Christ and the general Resurrection and Final Judgment? In Daniel chapters 2 and 7, we have two visions representing future history from the time that Daniel lived. Both visions give us a timeline of four successive empires that are…
In the ninth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses recalls the journey the Israelites took across the wilderness. He reminds them of all their sins and rebellion and of God’s faithfulness to them despite their sins. When he recounts the time when Aaron led the people in the worshiping of the golden…
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Karl Wojtya (aka, John Paul II) deftly charts the collapse of utilitarianism into egoism in Love and Responsibility (37-39): Utilitarianism makes pleasure the overriding aim of human action. But pleasure is a momentary good, and a good only for a particular person. A utilitarian might attempt to maximize the pleasure…
Joe Rigney sent along an unpublished paper on Galatians 2. He translates verses 15-16 this way: “We are Jews by nature and not ‘sinners’ from the Gentiles. Nevertheless, because we know that a ‘man of the works of the Law’ is not justified except through faith in Jesus Christ, even…
According to Paul, Peter feared “those of circumcision” (Galatians 2:12; Gr. tous ek peritomes ). Elsewhere in the context, Paul speaks of those who are “of nations sinners” (2:15), “of works of the law” (2:16) and “of the faith of Christ” (2:16). Each time, Paul uses the proposition ek ,…
Paul charges the Galatians with quickly “translating” from the one who called them to another gospel (Galatians 1:6). What is the otherness of this other gospel? Merit? Works righteousness? Wearing the badges of Judaism? In context, it must be most immediately related to Paul’s summary of Jesus’ achievement in 1:4:…
In his philosophical phase, Walker Percy meditated deeply on perception and knowledge, and their relationship to symbols and language. This superb passage is from a 1958 essay in the Journal of Philosophy : “If I see an object at some distance and do not quite recognize it, I may see…
No ought from is, say the philosophers. Says who? says Clifford Geertz ( The Interpretation Of Cultures (Basic Books Classics) ). Not, he points out, most people in most cultures most of the time. For them, ethos and ontology are inseparable: “Like bees who fly despite theories of aeronautics which…
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