Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World As I mentioned above, the history of Israel involved several centuries as a church-without-a-culture, and then several centuries as a culture-without-a-city. To be sure, there was an informal culture around the church of the Patriarchs, but the civilization of free farmers…
In the Reformation Tradition we baptize both professing believers and their children. In the case of infants it is now commonly insisted that this is done because the children are already in covenant with God. Baptism is a sign and seal of a previously existing reality. Despite the popularity of…
Concerning Sex & the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf of bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many…
Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato, virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the mumbo-jumbo and — presto! — the sacraments confer…
In 27.2, the Westminster Confession says that because of the “spiritual relation” between sacraments and the things they represent, “the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.” Applied to baptism, this means that when the Bible says that we are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6), it…
Showing page 249 of 309
Showing page 1 of 43
Many have observed the connections between consumerism and abortion. It’s an ancient insight. The prophet Micah charged that Zion had been built with blood and Jerusalem with violent injustice (Micah 4:10). He immediately followed with a charge against Judah’s leaders: Judges accept bribes, priests teach for money; prophets please the…
It was much better for God to create humanity from one individual than from several, Augustine argues ( City of God , 12.21). Noting the difference between the creation of animals from the ground and the creation of Eve from Adam, Augustine notes, “as to the other animals, He created…
“What kind of an appeal does this have for a reader - especially one from a post-Christian society like our own-who does not share Herbert’s theological premisses?” asks Stephen Prickett in his TLS review of John Drury’s Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert . Coleridge already…
Augustine discerns an inner connection between imperium and pornography. Imperium is the political form of the libido dominandi . Pornography is the sexual form of the same libido . Both imperium and porn reduce human persons to bodies to be manipulated for the manipulator’s pleasure. Decadence is built into imperium…
In 1907, Ira M. Price, a member of the original faculty of the University of Chicago and professor of ancient languages and literatures from 1892-1925, concluded a discussion of the parallels between Genesis and other ANE documents with this observation ( The Monuments and the Old Testament ): “How .…
Jody Bottum’s new An Anxious Age is as idiosyncratic, quirky, eloquent, and insightful as its author. Bottum offers a spiritual reading of contemporary America, starting from the insight that American culture has been re-enchanted, our “metaphysical realm . . . repopulated with social and political ideas elevated to the status…
Showing page 669 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
