In his new Being with God , Aristotle Papanikolaou points to differences between Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas on the issue of divine energies. For Lossky, the doctrine of divine energies is designed to “protect the real character of communion with God” in theosis while also insisting that union with God does not mean union with His essence. By union with the Body of Christ, one shares in the work of Christ and receives a deified human nature. But this... Read more
Thanks to my student Brent McLean for the following quotation from Schmemann’s Journals: “I reflect, while writing my Eucharist, about Communion, on the strange, mysterious alienation from it in the Church (on Mt. Athos – they didn’t regularly take Communion; in our churches, those who seek frequent Communion are held in suspicion). Mystically – it is the central question. The transformation of communion into the ‘sacred,’ the taboo, and, thus, a paradoxical naturalization (as awesome, demanding purification, etc.). Deafness to... Read more
Stephen Jaeger’s wonderful Ennobling Love (1999) sets up some bizarre juxtapositions. On the one hand, here is Anselm of Bec writing to two novices about the join the monastic community: “My eyes eagerly long to see your face, most beloved; my arms stretch out to your embraces. My lips long for your kisses; whatever remains of my life desires your company, so that my soul’s joy may be full in time to come . . . . You have come,... Read more
INTRODUCTION Our discussion of Mauss brought us to the verge of talking about postmodernism and the gift. We will do this primarily by examining Derrida, but to understand Derrida we need to spend some time with Levinas, one of the chief influences on Derrida’s thought. After examining some of the key themes of Levinas’s work, we’ll move into a consideration of Derrida’s discussions of hospitality, the impossibility of the gift, time, and sacrifice. (more…) Read more
The following points are responses to the Report of the Committee to Study the Doctrine of Justification of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I hope I will be excused for responding mainly to those portions of the recent OPC report on the Federal Vision and the New Perspective that pertain to my own work. This is not at all because I consider myself the central figure in these debates, but only because I expect others can speak for themselves better than... Read more
This summary of Wright’s views on justification is taken from passages in his new Paul in Fresh Perspective . 1) Covenant and apocalyptic. Unlike some contemporary scholars, Wright insists that covenant and apocalyptic are not opposed to one another, but joined in Paul’s teaching. By “covenant,” he means God’s settled promise to Abraham (and through him to others) to put the sinful work back in order, to intervene in the fallen world to deal with sin and death, to exercise... Read more
John Bossy notes in an article on the social functions of the medieval mass that the mass dividedthe human race into living and dead, friends and enemies. Various sorts of prayers for enemies were included: “Even the post-Reformation Roman ritual followed its set of collects ‘for our friends’ with another ‘for our enemies’; admittedly it asked God to give them the gift of charity and remission of their sins, but it also invited him ‘powerfully [to] deliver us from their... Read more
Jim Rogers of Texas A&M sent along the following discussion of polygamy in the OT in response to some reflections I posted last week on the typology of Rachel and Leah. I’m reproducing it here with Jim’s permission. Why is polygamy tolerated in the OT (Ex 21.10, Dt 21.15-17) but not in the New? OT patriarchs had plural wives, and there is nothing prohibiting priests or Levites from having plural wives in the OT. Nonetheless, NT bishops cannot be polygamous... Read more
INTRODUCTION During the reign of wicked Ahaz, Judah moves closer to Israelite and Gentile idolatry. Ahaz foolishly jumps onboard the ship of Israel just as it begins to sink. THE TEXT “In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem . . . .” (2 Kings 16:1-20). (more…) Read more
Genesis 29:10b-11: Jacob went up, and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept. Caesarius, bishop of Arles in Southern France in the fifth century, said that the patriarchs of Israel were all types of Jesus. It was not accidental, he pointed out, that the patriarchs all met their wives at wells. This is a mystery: “Since all three of... Read more
Leithart
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