In The Republic 588d, Plato writes, “words are a more plastic material than wax.” We can construct any manner of phantasmagorical creature in words, but think of how inept any pictorial depiction of Revelation appears, or how bizarre a portrait based on the Song of Songs would be. (Jonathan McIntosh at the University of Dallas sent along this link that effectively makes my point: Read more
A couple of weeks back, TNR published a lengthy review of Richard Neuhaus’ latest book that expanded into a warning about the danger that Neuhaus and his fellow theocons pose to American democracy. John Wilson has a lively rebuttal to the TNR piece in the current issue of Books & Culture, and observes that the article is “odd, even a little creepy” because the author of the TNR piece, Damon Linker, was recently on the editorial staff at First Things,... Read more
John Webster (in an essay in Volf and Welker, God’s Life in Trinity ) prefers the term “fellowship” to “communion” in describing the way creatures participate in the perfect life of God: “God communicates his absolute life. This communication does not mean that creatures participate in the life that is proper to the Holy Trinity, for then God would be not only giver of life to creatures but the receiver of life from creatures; and so his life would no... Read more
INTRODUCTION If “gift” has become a major category of recent thought, it is largely because of the influence of anthropology. Marcel Mauss’ The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies is the single most important work in this regard, and we’ll spend some time examining Mauss’ work later in the term. For now, we will set some of the context for Mauss by briefly tracing the rise of cultural anthropology, the specific influences on Mauss’ work (Durkheim... Read more
INTRODUCTION “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you?” asked the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar to the stranger who offered her living water. By His death and resurrection, Jesus answers that question: He is the true Israel, greater than Jacob. THE TEXT “Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the sons of the east. He looked, and saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep were... Read more
A web article on structuralism contrasts the objectivity of structuralism with the subjectivism of the existentialism that preceded it: “So while Existentialism emphasizes subjectivity, Structuralism embraces an objectivity so impersonal that it tends to dispense with the individual altogether. All myths are homologous, capable of being generated out of one another by permutations and combinations. So the romantic notion that myth expresses a distinctive culture goes as well: in the end, Levi-Strauss is after universal patterns of thought.” This offers... Read more
Gal 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. In this morning’s sermon, we have been trying to understand how our sufferings are a participation, a fellowship, in Christ’s suffering. The afflictions that we experience in life are intended to turn... Read more
What is the cross? For Mark, the cross is not so much Jesus’ passive suffering as His last great act of power. While Matthew shows Jesus as the great teacher of Israel, Mark shows Jesus as a man of action. In the first verse of his gospel, he identifies Jesus by the royal title “Son of God,” and as Son of God Jesus moves immediately from place to place conquering and to conquer. He casts out a demon from a... Read more
What is the cross? For Mark, the cross is not so much Jesus’ passive suffering as His last great act of power. While Matthew shows Jesus as the great teacher of Israel, Mark shows Jesus as a man of action. In the first verse of his gospel, he identifies Jesus by the royal title “Son of God,” and as Son of God Jesus moves immediately from place to place conquering and to conquer. He casts out a demon from a... Read more
R. R. Reno helpfully explains the attractions of Continental philosophy to theologians by suggesting that Continental philosophy has “become a form of theology.” More elaborately: “As an intellecutal practice, this branch of modern philosophy organizes itself around the task of discerning and proclaiming the deep meaning that is necessary to breathe life into a Western culture that has lost its confidence in the power of Christian teaching.” This “prophetic trajectory” is intensified in postmodern philosophy, which returns to “the deeply... Read more
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