About Toon Theology

• TheophilusHe carries the microphone. He is named after the reader Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts for ("most excellent Theophilus", Luke 1:3), so he is not the one with the answers. He is you: he turns up in a Bronze Age harbour or a fourth-century council in an orange T-shirt and asks what is going on. His name means "loved by God".
• HannahShe carries the notebook. She is named after the mother of Samuel (1 Samuel 1), and the letter on her shirt, ח, is the first letter of her name in Hebrew. He asks; she checks. Her name means "grace, favour".

Theophilus is a Greek name and Hannah a Hebrew one, so between them the two testaments are covered.

• Illustrated BiblePassages panel by panel, with the Hebrew or Greek underneath each one: word by word, read aloud, with the rare words and the grammar picked out.
• ControversiesThe arguments the church actually had: what everyone thinks a dispute was about, what was really at stake, and who held what.
• CuriositiesQuestions like "What was Leviathan?" The short answer comes first, then every claim with a mark saying how sure anyone can be.
• ConversationsField guides to Chinese folk religious practices, and how a respectful conversation about them can actually go.
• Theology TidbitsOne idea at a time, in a short video, a handout or a slide deck.

A few things are done the same way everywhere, on purpose.

1. Views are marked as views. Where a page argues for a position, the argument sits in a block headed "Where I stand", in a different colour. Everything outside it is reporting.
2. Every side gets the same weight. When a page sets out positions, they are laid out identically. Which side was right is a claim, and claims go in the words, not in the design.
3. Confidence is shown, not implied. Claims on the Curiosities pages carry a mark: attested, probable, disputed, speculative, or popular myth. Hover over a mark to see what it means.
4. Measurements show their numbers. A verse marked beginner, intermediate or advanced tells you why if you hover over it.
5. Conversations end open. The Conversations pages stop before a conclusion, on purpose. They model a conversation, not an argument to be won.

Toon Theology is part of TheophilusBible. The Conversations section is condensed from Malcolm Goh's book Spiritual Conversations with Practitioners of Chinese Folk Religion (2025).

When something here makes you want to look at the text for yourself, see Go deeper at TheophilusBible.