Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
"The faithful use of sacraments, and indeed a fully sacramental view of creation, is vital to the life of the Church. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are rites that directly shape the community and the Body, because they were given by God for that express purpose. A deficient practice of…
Weightlessness is fun. At the beginning of Gravity (2013) , we can see one astronaut dancing the Macarena and another one playing with his jetpack. They like it out there in the space. Apart from zero-gravity they can enjoy beautiful views, and even the silence is likable, although Matt Kowalski…
I recently went to a lunch that is more or less quarterly. About a dozen of us go. It is a lunch held in honor of a retired professor of religion and philosophy. I have been one of his acquaintances for more than 40 years. In his tenure as professor,…
Why Theopolis? Don't we already have seminaries and Bible colleges and other institutions for theological education? Why do we need another one? I get this question now and again. I ask myself this question even more often. What follows is a partial answer. Back in the 1990s, seminaries seemed to…
I think the logic of the Lutheran Reformation can be summarized in one sentence, attributed to Luther himself: "God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does." The first half of that statement is justification by faith . God doesn't need our works to satisfy his justice or…
If you are looking to start a fight with Christians, there is hardly a better subject to do so than the arts. Music, movies, paintings, and literature have provided no small battlegrounds for Christians to war. We are emotionally invested in the arts. A song, a book, or a film…
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We Americans like to pretend we are self-made men and women. We don’t need nobody’s help, don’t tread on me, we’ll go it alone if only they’ll leave us alone. My life, my body, my person are mine and mine alone. We think that we can make our way through…
Wives, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold,…
In a widely cited article, Leon Kass offers a partial, but still numbing, list of the social and cultural changes that have undermined traditional courtship: “the sexual revolution, made possible especially by effective female contraception; the ideology of feminism and the changing educational and occupational status of women; the destigmatization…
John’s statements about “knowing that we know” (1 John 2:3) have been the historical basis for the practical syllogism: 1. All who keep the commandments may be assured God’s favor. 2. I am keeping the commandments. 3. Therefore, I am assured of God’s favor. But the practical syllogism pushes John’s…
Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. While “propitiation” has a concrete reference to the ark-cover and the firmament, it also has to do with pacifying wrath. But if Jesus is the eternal Son of the God whose name is Jealous, if He is Jealous in Himself, whose wrath is…
Suppose we said that Jesus received the Father’s approval of His work by grace, rather than by strict justice. What damage does that do to our soteriology? I’m not saying this is the case; I’m merely trying to pinpoint the motivation behind the Klinean position that insists on the strict…
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