Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The “second Reformation” introduced Reformed liturgy and teaching into Lutheran Germany. This was seen by some as a continuation of the Reformation and a purgation of Catholic remnants. The effort to carry on “further reformation” led to disputes with Lutherans. As Bodo Nischan has put it, the hottest debate in…
In J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century , Tom Shippey observes that Bilbo is a member of the middle class, a bourgeois. Bilbo does not have any servants, but his hole is “the home of a member of the Victorian upper-middle class of Tolkien’s nineteenth-century youth, full of…
Idolatry has deprived Israel of her senses. This was one of the early messages to Isaiah (Isaiah 6). Yahweh sent him out to a people who had been deprived of their senses because of their commitment to idols. They become like the idols they serve. They still have eyes, but…
In the current climate of Trinitarian discussion concerning personhood, it's good to reach back to David Bentley Hart's treatment of the subject in his wonderful Beauty of the Infinite . Hart addresses the dangers of misreading Rahner’s rule, namely, the danger of dissolving the ontological Trinity into the economic. In…
Chris Kou is the oldest son of Chinese immigrants. Chris and his brothers run a branding and marketing business, Imagineering, in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. In his spare time, he takes online courses from Reformed Theological Seminary, and aspires to be a pastor. Chris is also one of our…
The following was delivered as the Solemn Charge and Exhortation to Theopolis students beginning the Easter term course on Architecture and Liturgical Space . As we will be reminded repeatedly throughout the week, the Bible has a lot to say about building and buildings. Long stretches of Exodus, Kings, Chronicles,…
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W illiam Johnstone observes in his study of Exodus and Chronicles that the Chronicler blames the death of Saul on the ma'al by which he ma'al ed against the Lord (95; 1 Chronicles 10:13-14). It's the same term used earlier in Chronicles, and in each case it “punctuates the decisive…
W illiam Johnstone ( Chronicles and Exodus ) offers an explanation for the nearly verbatim repetition a portion of the genealogy of Benjamin in 1 Chronicles 8:29-38 and 9:35-44. The repeated portion “concerns, on the one hand, the population of Jerusalem, and, on the other, the family of Saul.” Both…
W illiam Johnstone ( 1 & 2 Chronicles , 1.126-7) notes that the gatekeepers listed in 1 Chronicles 9 are “first and foremost . . . security guards,” responsible for “locking up at night and opening first thing in the morning (v. 27). Their settlements surrounded the sacred precincts for…
F orced to choose between Nestorianism and Monophysitism, Karl Rahner once wrote, “I would prefer to be an orthodox Nestorian.” Aaron Riches, who quotes this comment ( Ecce Homo , 9), thinks it a revealing admission. But not surprising: “On the one hand, it is a sign of the historical…
A nthony Vidler ( The Architectural Uncanny ), homelessness has been a leading trope for characterizing the modern world. Here's Marx in 1844: “We have said . . . that man is regressing to the cave dwelling, etc.—but he is regressing to it in an estranged, malignant form. The savage…
S peaking at a recent conference at Trinity School of Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, Michael Gorman observed that Paul's summary of the gospel tradition follows an alternating rhythm: Paul first refers to an event in the gospel account, then cites proof of that event. Jesus died; the proof of His…
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