That’s the question Paul asks in Romans 7:7-12. “That the law is sin?” N.T. Wright: this text “tells the story of the law’s arrival on Sinai and Israel’s recapitulation of the sin of Adam” (562). Some complex stuff here, but it is a good way to see how Wright expounds Romans. |inline Read more
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know my necessities before I ask and my ignorance in asking: Have compassion on my weakness, and mercifully give me those things which for my unworthiness I dare not, and for my blindness I cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Read more
Busy week, down in links for this Weekly Meanderings. Lukas and Annika were here, I was hard at work on a writing project, and we left for LA and San Diego on Wednesday. Here are some suggested readings. Bob Robinson on human potentiality as the way to view humans. Good piece. |inline Read more
Joseph Epstein’s Friendship: An Expose turns in chps 3 and 4 to two more topics: best friends and how to kill friendships. This is not a review or even a description, but the simple recording of some quotations and some thoughts. Respond to what strikes you. |inline Read more
I’ve edited only slightly. God can show Himself as He really is only to real people. And that means not simply to people who are individually good, but to people who are united together in a body, loving one another, helping one another, showing Him to one another. For that is what God meant humanity to be like; like players in one band, or organs in one body. Consequently, the one really adequate instrument for learning about God, is the... Read more
This is not bad grammar, but a potent question: “Who is the ‘I’ of Romans 7?” There are several possibilities and we’ll do well to get these in mind before we look at his chapter. |inline Read more
Kris and I are in San Dimas, CA, where I will be speaking to the Youth Leadership Institute in conjunction with Robin Dugall, a professor at Azusa Pacific. We should have access to the internet throughout the day, so … well, here’s a quotation about atheism I thought would be interesting to discuss. |inline Read more
In 1912 George Santayana taught a course at Harvard on Jesus, but no one taught another course on Jesus at Harvard until 1982, a full seventy years, when Harvey Cox did so. Cox was known to me in my college days as a radical “death-of-God” theologian, made provocatively public in his book The Secular City (1965). That was the last book of his I bought (I don’t recall doing any more than dipping into it) until I saw When Jesus... Read more
Until Christ. That’s the short answer. The Torah was added to the Covenant promises of Genesis 12 and 15 in order to put into bold relief for Israel its sinfulness. And Paul makes it clear in Romans 7:1 that he is speaking to Jewish converts: “I am speaking to those who know the law.” That is, to those who are tempted to think election means knowing the Law, when for Paul election means having the Law that reveals sin. But,... Read more
A personal e-mail yesterday from a blog reader, RJS, suggested another idea for this series on zealotry. What is the impact of a high fences or thick fences? That is, what happens when one is accustomed to dwell in the security and safety of a fence (what I’m calling a beyond the Bible immunity) and then learns, after all, that such a fence is wrong? It’s happened you know. |inline Read more
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