Sacramental Protestantism

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:02 am By Peter Leithart

Protestants are people of the word; Catholics are people of the sacraments. That’s the way it’s usually divided up. Sed contra, I say: Medieval Catholics frequently denied that there were sacraments in Eden; Protestants have just as frequently affirmed Edenic sacraments. The upshot: For Protestants, sacraments are inherent in human interaction with God; for Catholics (at least medieval ones), sacraments were a postlapsarian accommodation. Sed contra, I say again: Medieval Catholics frequently said that the sacraments of the old law... Read more

Theology as prayer

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:51 pm By Peter Leithart

If all theology is theology proper, all theology is also prayer. Because we are never merely speaking “about” God. Read more

Adam the Completer?

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

On some constructions of the covenant of works, obedient Adam would have secured eternal life for his posterity. He would have achieved the eschaton of human destiny, as a human being, entirely from the resources given to him at creation. Since the fall, we need a Savior, and we need God in flesh to bring us to glory. Apparently, we wouldn’t need God to bring us to glory if Adam had not sinned. Human completion would have been a human... Read more

Covenant of redemption, covenant of works

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:51 pm By Peter Leithart

All theology is theology proper. Talk about creation or covenant, Israel or incarnation, justification or final judgment is talk about the Creator, the covenant Lord, the God of Jacob, the Son who takes flesh, the God who justifies and judges. Theologians can’t not talk about God, and one test – perhaps the supreme test – of everything we say is whether it honors the Lord we serve. It is therefore refreshing to see Cal Beisner and Fowler White attempting to... Read more

Adam’s faith

Last updated on: April 26, 2007 at 7:08 pm By Peter Leithart

What should Adam have done when the serpent started talking to Eve? What would you do? You’d scream, probably. But then you’d pray, hard. Because you’d know that only God can deliver you from a dragon. We sometimes think that Adam should have stepped up and handled the serpent bare-handed. Perhaps; but that confrontation would have been a confrontation of faith, Adam relying not on his own strength but wholly on God. Unfallen Adam, in short, should have cried out... Read more

Adam’s faith

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

Irenaeus on the covenant of works

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:45 pm By Peter Leithart

Horton cites Irenaeus as an early theologian who anticipated the federal theologians by distinguishing between “the ‘covenant of law’ and the ‘covenant of grace.’” In a footnote, he claims that “Irenaeus even distinguishes between ‘an economy of law/works’ and a ‘Gospel covenant,’” citing Against Hereies 4.25. I don’t find the phrases Horton uses in that section of Irenaeus, but perhaps we’re looking at different translations. More substantively, it’s clear that Irenaeus is talking not about the covenant with Adam and... Read more

Natural capacity

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:09 am By Peter Leithart

In his recent book on the covenant, Michael Horton says that under the covenant of works Adam was “a righteous and holy human servant entirely capable of fulfilling the stipulations of God’s law.” If this is taken in the sense that Adam had no sinful inclinations, and was posse non peccare , fine. But Horton repeats this description a page later in a context that suggests he means something else. Adam was enduring a test, he says, to see whether... Read more

Exploratory and standard theology

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm By Peter Leithart

In a thoughtful review of Fergus Kerr’s recent book on Twentieth-century Catholic theology ( First Things , May), Rusty Reno discusses the distinction between exploratory and standard theology. The “Heroic Generation” prior to Vatican II (Congar, de Lubac, Rahner, Lonergan, and others) did theology in a creative, exploratory mode, severely criticizing the neoscholastic standard theology in which they were trained. Reno perceptively notes that the true contributions of the innovators are almost unintelligible today, because no one knows the neoscholastic... Read more

Faith and Grace

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm By Peter Leithart

Faith is often characterized as a “receptive” and “responsive” disposition, or as “passive.” Even if we accept standard definitions of faith, that characterization seems to overlook the variety of ways in which grace and faith can be related. There appear to be at least three. For clarity, in the following I am assuming that “grace” means God’s favor toward men (whether in the face of demerit or simply unmerited), a favor expressed in words and gifts. I am assuming that... Read more