Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Flying scrolls. Red horses. Beasts coming out of the sea. Winged women. The list goes on. Apocalyptic literature in the Bible is like a cross between science fiction and Marvel comics. And the Bible has a fair bit of this sort of thing. Daniel sees visions in Babylon, Zechariah sees…
Trinity House Institute has taken a new name, the Theopolis Institute. This striking new name expresses our unique vision and mission and captures the unified purpose behind all our specific programs and activities. We still have Bible, liturgy, and culture in our tagline. We still offer the same courses on…
Adam Kotsko offers a socio-political variation on the Christus Victor atonement theory in his 2010 study, The Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation . He does this by explaining "the devil" in terms of the Hegelian concept of "objective spirit," Geist . As Kotsko puts it, Geist "refers…
Two factors keep Nahtali Meshel from discussing the meaning of sacrifice until late in his The "Grammar" of Sacrifice . The first has to do with the texts he draws from: "P says little about the meaning of its rituals" (174). The other has to do with the grammatical theory…
Chapter 5 of Naphtali Meshel's The "Grammar" of Sacrifice focuses on "praxemics," the physical actions of sacrificial ritual. Praxemes are constituted by six elements: an "atomact," an elementary physical act or gesture; an actor; an object that is acted up; a target for the action and often for the object…
Two chapters of Naphtali Meshel’s The “Grammar” of Sacrifice cover what he calls “jugation” and “hierarchies.” The first involves the addition of other materials to an animal offering. Jugates include wine, cereal, and oil that are added to the animals (zoemes) that are offered in sacrifice. Some jugates are coordinated…
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Pauline Viviano has a bit of fun at my expense over on the America website(www.americamagazine.org/blogs/client). She’s “reviewing” my commentary on 1 & 2 Kings, but instead of actually discussing my book, she mocks typological interpretation and my use of it in particular. She knew what I was up to without…
With advances in medical technology, it’s possible to keep people alive longer than ever before. This certainly has its wonders, but it’s really an ambiguous achievement. It means that death more and more is the result of decisions about treatment and ending treatment. We can keep someone breathing artificially, a…
A TLS review of several recent books on bio-computing contained old news for some people, but new news for me. The latest wrinkle in computer technology has been to use biological material - DNA - rather than silicon for information storage and processing. One USC scientist was able to create…
Conflicting incentives are built into the American health care system. On the one hand, many patients depend on insurance companies to pay their bills, and come into a health crisis with a “no expense spared” mentality. On the other hand, doctors and hospitals, despite the millions they pull in, are…
Death is an enemy of life in the obvious sense that it brings an individual’s life to an end. But it’s an enemy of life in a broader sense to. Death interrupts life, everyone’s life, life in the broadest sense. Death turns festivity to mourning. Death prevents us from bringing…
Bediako, Mbiti, and Lamin Sanneh are all African theologians who reject Christendom. By “Christendom” they mean a system where the Christianity is domesticated and put into the service of state or imperial interests. While this has been a reality within the West, and it is bad. But it is simplistic…
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