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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Romans

Hymn of the Justified

Romans 8:31-39 is better sung than commented upon. It’s a thrilling, ecstatic hymn of boisterous assurance that God’s purposes will be accomplished. Yet, I will attempt to comment on them. If we sing Paul’s hymn, let’s make sure we sing with understanding. Given the character of these verses, it’s easy…

by Peter LeithartJuly 20, 2017
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Culture

Growing up Nostalgic: Perpetual Adolescence and the Kingdom Come

"An ethic unshaped by eschatology is neither Jesus’ nor Christian.” - Tremper Longman How does an immature culture grow up? Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is about the dangers of being lost in adolescence. By the end of the movie, the viewer is pointed to a road we infer leads to…

by Dustin MesserJuly 18, 2017
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Theopolis News

The Theopolitan Society

We are in the middle of our campaign for the end of the fiscal year. We've raised $30,000 from some major donors, and need to raise another $70,000 to meet our budget. Please consider becoming a regular donor , and keep reading to learn about a great opportunity. This brief…

by Brian MoatsJuly 17, 2017
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Baptism

Strong Magic Takes Blood

Prolegomena 1. “You’re a pastor,” my new friend says as we sit down, “and you’re a massage therapist. How does that work?” To her, Christianity implies stuffy ideology, a disregard of the physical. A Christian massage therapist is an oddity; a pastor massage therapist is nearly a contradiction in terms.…

by Tim NicholsJuly 13, 2017
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Politics

Why Poles Love Trump

54% of Poles think favorably of Americans, only 13% unfavorably, according to Centrum Badania Opinii Spolecznej . Ten years ago, the numbers were 44% and 21% respectively. Twenty years ago, they were 64% and 6%. Back in the 1990s, Americans were the most liked nation among Poles. Now they are…

by Bogumil JarmulakJuly 11, 2017
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Biblical Theology

Stones and Fruit: Divination and Procreation – (Part Two)

Stones of Life and Death Of course, the sex of a child is not a choice between light and darkness or life and death. Sex, like circumcision, is a horizontal demarcation, a delegation of roles within humanity. In contrast, the white stone and the black stone within the “liturgical scrotum”…

by Mike BullJuly 7, 2017

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Tertullian’s “Pacifism”

Oliver and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan pithily sum up Tertullian’s argument in De corona militis ( From Irenaeus to Grotius , 24): “By concentrating on the particular issue of whether a Christian should wear the military chaplet on ceremonial occasions, it manages to take for granted the more fundamental case against…

February 20, 2014

Moses the Tactician

Command, Clement of Alexandria wrote, involved “caution, risk taking, and the union of the two,” and these expressed themselves in words, deeds, or word-deeds. Moses was the great model of command, not only to Israel but to the Greeks ( Stromateis , 1.24). Moses’ night march through the sea guided…

February 20, 2014

Hauerwas the Liberal

In his wise contribution to the Blackwell Companion to Political Theology , RR Reno concludes that Hauerwas’s theology is “a thoroughgoing Christian liberalism” (314). This isn’t a criticism or a charge of inconsistency. Reno knows that Hauerwas “he rejects the liberal ideal of critical detachment. We can never begin by…

February 20, 2014
Movies

Capitalist Legoland

Noah Kristula-Green responds to the politicization of the Lego Movie by, well, trying to score political points: “the film does play lip service to political tropes, but what really makes the film work is that it represents the highest form of capitalist expression: it is a commercial.” The film resists…

February 20, 2014

Spooking Putin

Putin is watching Ukraine carefully, writes Julia Ioffe , because he knows that what happens in Kiev could be replicated in Moscow: “Putin and the system he built do sweat the small things because Putin sees dissent as a slippery slope. He knows the cold has never stopped a single…

February 20, 2014

Triple Name

Jesus promises to make the victors in Philadelphia pillars in His temple, and to inscribe a triple name on them. Fill in the blank: “The name of My God, and the name of the ____________ of My God, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new…

February 20, 2014

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