Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In my last essay, we saw how consumer culture has gutted the familial category necessary to understand the church. When a consumer visits a church, he expects another service-provider, such as a hospital or a restaurant. He doesn’t understand the role of men in ministry, and thus, not the role…
First time visitors to our church sometimes express their surprise that children, even the youngest, participate with their parents in the entire worship service. Many congregations created an expectation for the parents (and children) of Sunday School or Child Care being available during the entire worship service or during the…
Quantifying the Love of God “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” ~ John 3:16 This most beloved verse in all the Bible was spoken by the Savior himself to Nicodemus. As…
While The Lord’s Prayer enjoys wide recognition throughout the Church, its richness and depth may be unrealized due to a lesser familiarity with, what I will argue is, its primary inspiration: the Tabernacle. There, Christ’s intent can rightly be discerned. The Prayer’s methodological correction to the Jews and Gentiles wasn’t…
The Consumption of the Covenant Idea of the Church Last time we saw consumerism, having canalized its attitudes in our culture, shapes what the consumer sees when he or she steps into a church. Here, we’ll see how it has eviscerated the covenant and familial ideas necessary to understand the…
The ignoble Jayber Crow can stir your appetite for the noble. It’s the simplicity of a good ol’ Port William boy that builds the charm of the book. In fact, the elitists in Port William receive the harshest blows and severest outcomes, as they should. But before delving into the…
Showing page 28 of 309
Showing page 1 of 43
Before Yahweh ever promises that Abraham’s seed through Sarah will multiply, He promises that to Ishmael (Genesis 16:10). The line goes from Adam to Noah to Ishmael; he is the first Abrahamic new Adam, before Abraham himself is described in these Adamic terms. This is further support for Paul’s allegory…
“A wild beast has killed him,” Jacob says of Joseph when he sees the bloody robe. Suffering, death, wild animals, a robe stripped off - it’s all back in Psalm 22: “Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me,…
MacMullen thinks Constantine deserves the title Maximus , if only for the establishment of Constantinople. After summarizing its place in Europe and role in subsequent European history, he says, “As a founder, Constantine belongs in the company of Romulus and Alexander.”
Constantinople’s “birthday” occurred on May 11, 330. Most of the festivities took place in the newly built forum, at the center of which “stood a porphyry column bearing a gilt statue of the emperor. It held on its right hand the orb of world power. Inside the orb was a…
In 324, Constantine, then ruler of the Western Empire, went to war with his Eastern counterpart, Lincinius. Ramsay MacMullen describes it as having the “character of a crusade”: “For Constantine, the battle cry was not legitimacy, though indeed he was the senior Augustus and thought he now dusted off the…
Athanasius that the God of the Arians cannot create. If God is a maker, then “his creative Word” must be “proper to him” and not outside Him: “If, on the one hand, the willing [to create] belongs to him, and his will is productive and sufficient for constituting the things…
Showing page 1467 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
