Paul also makes some observations that hint at aspects of a theology of music. He says or implies several things in 1 Corinthians 14:6-8. First, he introduces a musical analogy into a discussion of speech in the church, implying a parallel between music and language. That analogy becomes explicit as he returns to the argument about tongues in verse 9 – like an indistinct musical instrument, one who speaks in a tongue without being understood is only vibrating the air.... Read more
In 1 Corinthians 14:10-11, Paul supports a point about tongues and prophecy with a bit of linguistics. Meaning, he notes, functions within a linguistic community. Languages have significance (v 10), but only for those who know that significance (v 11). Language boundaries are community boundaries, so that if we speak a language that’s not understood we seem a “barbarian” (NASB; Greek, barbaros ). Without common language, speakers remain barbarians to one another (v. 11). Paul’s is a fairly simple observation,... Read more
INTRODUCTION John says that believing in Jesus the Christ is a sign of being born of God (5:1) and that those who believe in Jesus as Son of God overcome the world (5:4-5). How do we know that Jesus is Christ and Son of God? John’s answer is that faith means trusting “witnesses” (5:7-9). THE TEXT “This is He who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is... Read more
Terrence Rafferty reviews a couple of recent horror novels in the NYT – John Saul’s In the Dark of the Night and Joe Schreiber’s Chasing the Dead . Both, he says, fail to deliver on the hints of deeper horror they toy with: “These novels are constructed as efficient, relentless terror-generating machines, and as such don’t require (much less encourage) the reader to think about the sources of the florid homicidal rage they put on display. That’s just as well,... Read more
1 John 5:5: whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. John uses the root of the word “victory” (nik-) seven times in this letter. Mostly, it’s buried in the word “overcome.” Young men, he says, overcome the evil one, and we all overcome the world because the one in us is greater than he who is in the world. Because we are “from God” and our enemies are... Read more
1 Timothy 4:13: Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Prior to the Reformation, the Western church treated ordination as a sacrament. Protestants have never done that. For the seven sacraments of the Roman church, the Reformers insisted, rightly, that Christ had instituted only two marks of the covenant community – baptism and the Lord’s Supper. (more…) Read more
Many of you received an email this week encouraging you to be at church on time and rebuking those who are habitually tardy. Some got the impression that the elders don’t want you to show up at all if you’re running late. That’s not the point. If you’re unavoidably tardy – and most of us are at one time or another – come anyway. Better late than not at all. And, of course, even if you come with time to... Read more
In response to my earlier post on “Spouse and Kingdom,” Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio writes, “it strikes me that the WCF’s dualism in describing the Church reflects the typical Western dualism that was congealing during the 17th century. Invisible and spiritual matters can be described in poetic, imaginative, metaphoric, fuzzy ways, but things we can perceive with the senses, “that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched... Read more
Zizioulas locates the central difference between patristic and postmodern views of “otherness” in the way each conceives the relation of old and new. For postmodernism, “alterity involves negation, rupture, ‘leaving behind’, for patristic thought the ‘new’ relates to the ‘old’ in a positive way.” He demonstrates this by appealing to patristic treament of the Old Testament. Instead of saying that the church’s rites were “good” and Israel’s “bad,” or saying that the new “abolished” the old, they insisted that “since... Read more
In his 2006 volume, Communion and Otherness , John Zizioulas pretty directly connects Western philosophy with the fall of Adam. Adam claimed to be God and thus “rejected the Other as constitutive of his being.” As a result, Self took “ontological priority over the Other,” with the result that “otherness and communion could not ultimately coincide.” (more…) Read more
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