Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The first commandment given in the Levitical sacrificial legislation has to do with the animals appropriate to sacrifice: "When any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of cattle ( behemah ), from the herd or the flock" (Lev. 1:2). Cattle alone were…
This post was originally posted in 2004 The ultimate condemnation of a position in Reformed circles is to show that it “leads back to Rome.” Indeed, one gets the feeling that Rome is a worse destination for a Presbyterian than even hell itself. The accusation of Rome stings deeply, of…
There are countless scholars who have helped me in my reading of various passages of Scripture. I have gleaned insights and keys from them that have unlocked texts that once perplexed me. However, no scholar has done so much to teach me how to read the Scripture more generally than…
The Tortoise and the Hare is perhaps the most well-known of the Greek fables. Its story has been present in every era of human history. From the Indigenous retellings with hummingbirds and cranes to the Biblical account of David and Goliath, the basic furniture of an unlikely hero tale is…
Sexual sins are perhaps the most shame-inducing sins experienced by Christians and non-Christians alike. All sins can bring shame, but sexual sins are deeply personal and affect us in profound ways. For example, adultery leaves its victim devastated by betrayal; porn addiction leaves men feeling gross, pathetic, and lazy; losing…
If the mark of a good book is how many times a person can re-read it with pleasure, Richard Adams’ novel Watership Down is one of the best books of the 20 th century. I’ve taught this book in my middle school literature class for the past three years, and…
Showing page 18 of 309
Showing page 8 of 43
Study of the sacramental in early modern English poetry has become a cottage industry in literary scholarship. Kimberley Johnson isn't satisfied with the direction this scholarship has taken, and in her Made Flesh , she offers a corrective. Much of the scholarship has focused on sacramental, especially Eucharistic, doctrine as…
What is sacrifice for? Many ancient cultures thought that animal offers fed the gods. The situation is more ambiguous for ancient Greeks. As Charles Stocking points out in his Politics of Sacrifice in Early Greek Myth and Poetry , the only explicit evidence for the notion that sacrifice is food…
In a TLS review of several recent books on China , Gavin Jacobson highlights the role of geography and history in the formation of contemporary Chinese politics. Geography first: "China is enclosed within 14,000 miles of land borders and a 9,000-mile sea edge. Twenty countries lie next to it, including…
In an essay in the Economic Journal (117 [2007] 146-73), Robert Sugden and Luigino Bruni describe how "psychology was removed from economics, and how it might be brought back." The development of behavior economics provides a starting point for them to examine the "Pareto turn," the work of Vilfredo Pareto…
In a long and stimulating piece in the New Atlantis , Samuel Matlack explores the role of metaphor in contemporary physics, especially with regard to the challenges of translating the mathematical formulae of theory into popular writing. Have we, he asks, transcended the need for poetry in our explanations of…
In a discussion of a First Things article about Christian colleges by Carl Trueman, Rod Dreher writes : Sometimes I hear Christians saying things along the lines of, 'Bring it on! The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church!' etc. These are the kind of romantics who…
Showing page 103 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
