In his autobiography, Wagner describes the effect of Aeschylus’ Oresteia on his sensibilities and work: “I could see the Oresteia with my mind’s eye, as though it were actually being performed; and its effect on me was indescribable. Nothing could equal the sublime emotion with which the Agamemnon inspired me; and to the last word of the Eumenides, I remained in an atmosphere so far removed from the present day that I have never since been really able to reconcile... Read more
Hezekiah is the greatest; 2 Kings 18:5 says so: “He trusted Yahweh, the God of Israel; so tyhat after him there was no like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.” Josiah is the greatest; 2 Kings 23:25 says so: “before him there was no king like him who turned to Yahweh with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses;... Read more
Hezekiah is the greatest; 2 Kings 18:5 says so: “He trusted Yahweh, the God of Israel; so tyhat after him there was no like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.” Josiah is the greatest; 2 Kings 23:25 says so: “before him there was no king like him who turned to Yahweh with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses;... Read more
Maguire again, this time describing Augustine’s idea of memory and self: “This dynamism of relation, manifest above all in the way that God’s love permits the love of creatures for God, and the love among creatures through God, is for Augustine the ‘ground’ of the self’s unity. That this relationality is constantly exceeding itself is not a source of fragmentation, but an intimation of the divine’s infinite and constant excess, at once beyond change and beyond limit.” That is, the... Read more
Maguire again, this time describing Augustine’s idea of memory and self: “This dynamism of relation, manifest above all in the way that God’s love permits the love of creatures for God, and the love among creatures through God, is for Augustine the ‘ground’ of the self’s unity. That this relationality is constantly exceeding itself is not a source of fragmentation, but an intimation of the divine’s infinite and constant excess, at once beyond change and beyond limit.” That is, the... Read more
In a characteristically thoughtful meditation on the strengths and weakness of blogs (on the Books and Culture site), Alan Jacobs includes these reflections from CS Lewis: “As I think about these architectural deficiencies [of blogs], and the deficiencies of my own character, I find myself meditating on a passage from a book by C. S. Lewis. In his great work of literary history, Poetry and Prose in the Sixteenth Century, Lewis devotes a passage to what he describes, with a... Read more
In his fascinating study, The Conversion of Imagination, Matthew Maguire offers notes that “imagination is not always best understood as an emancipatory faculty that moves separately from or against scientific rationality.” Rather, citing the work of Amos Funkenstein, Maguire suggests that “a variant of exalted imagination – that is, one that seeks to construct or make a reality from admittedly imprecise or ‘imperfect’ but nonetheless ‘real’ measurement of matter in motion – was a historical precondition of those very ambitions... Read more
“When the Church and Monarchy were restored on 19 May, 1660, Canterbury and York, being the two primacies of the Church of England, assembled their convocations and canonized King Charles, adding his name to the ecclesiastical calendar in the Book of Common Prayer. In the time of Queen Victoria this was however removed upon request by elected representatives of the Commons; now, 30 January is only listed as a ‘Lesser Festival.’” Through the efforts of the Society of King Charles... Read more
INTRODUCTION After Hilkiah finds the book of the law in the temple, Josiah embarks on a thorough reform of Judah’s worship. But his reformation extends beyond the borders of Judah; Josiah not only reverses the sins of the kinds of the South but the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel sin. THE TEXT “And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple... Read more
Luke 22:29-30: Jesus said to His disciples during the Last Supper, Just as My Father granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Last Thursday was Ascension Day. Forty days after Easter, Jesus took His disciples outside Jerusalem, commanded them to stay in Jerusalem until they received the gift of the Spirit, instructed them then to move... Read more
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