There’s a chronological problem in 2 Kings 15:1. Here’s the issue: Amaziah of Judah reigned for 29 years (14:2). Jeroboam II became king in the 15th year of Amaziah (14:23). Yet, Azariah, the son of Amaziah, does not become king until the 27th year of Jeroboam II. Hence: Year 1 of Jeroboam II is Year 15 of Amaziah. Year 15 of Jeroboam II is Year 29 of Amaziah, the year of his death. Year 27 of Jeroboam II is Year... Read more
Wells makes the very interesting point that postmodernism has done to modernity in a few decades what Christian opposition to modernity was incapable of doing over the course of centuries: “On just about every front Enlightenment ideas have been fought by Christians – whether in the academy, with its pervasive humanism and naturalism, or, more specifically, in the biblical arean which, in developing one sophisticated apparatus after another, has succeeded in ensconcing unbelief in the very source from which Christian... Read more
Wells quotes from British sociologist Anthony Giddens , who argues that postmodernism is not so much a rejection of modern foundationalism as “unmasking what has been hidden in the modern.” In classic Enlightenment foundationalism, reason is self-grounded, and faith in reason is a dogmatic faith. For consistency’s sake, Enlightenment thinkers should have rejected their own dogma along with all the others: In short, if “the sphere of reason is wholly unfettered, no knowledge can rest upon an unquestioned foundation, because... Read more
Like many of David Wells ‘s books, I’ve find his recent Above All Earthly Pow’rs simultaneously bracing, stimulating, and frustrating. Wells examines the consequences of the confluence of two main cultural trends – the postmodern ethos and the increasingly pluralistic religious situation of the West. He makes many good points: in many respects I like his confrontational approach, he gives a broad but clear definition of postmodernism and distinguishes it helpfully from postmodernity, he rightly recognizes the strong continuities between... Read more
Moses is mentioned 10 times in Kings, and there are some tantalizing connections with the 10 Words that Moses delivered to Israel. For instance: 1. 1 Kings 2:3: David exhorts Solomon to guard the Lord’s commandments and walk in his ways, using a 7fold description of the law. This is an exhortation to cling to Yahweh above all other gods, to keep the first commandment. 2. 1 Kings 8:9: There was nothing in the ark placed in the temple other... Read more
In his 1607 treatise, Idea of Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , the painter Federigo Zuccaro claimed that human being was creative being: “Because of His goodness and to show in a small replica the excellence of his divine art, [God] having created man in His image and likeness with respect to the soul, endowing it with an immaterial, incorruptible substance and the powers of thinking and willing, with which man could rise above and command all the other creatures of... Read more
William Bouwsma points out in his book on the “waning of the Renaissance” that the Renaissance challenged what he calls the “traditional conception of the self,” in which reason sits at the top of a hierarchy of discrete faculties, including will, passions, and body. The challenge to this conception during the later Renaissance was part of a “return to biblical roots,” and particularly a return to the rhetorically-oriented theology of Augustine: (more…) Read more
John Frame has a typically gracious though critical review of Brian McLaren ‘s Generous Orthodoxy in the current issue of Reformation and Revival Journal. Frame appreciates a number of the concerns that animate McLaren (learning from other Christian traditions, the missional concept of the church, a hermeneutic of love, among other things). Though Frame agrees that theological controversy should be carried in a “winsome” manner, he wonders whether McLaren is willing to engage in theological controversy at all: “he seems... Read more
In his recently re-released Bioethics: A Primer for Christians , Gilbert Meilaender discusses baptism to formulate a Christian understanding of the person. Baptism, he points out, is a communal act but also individualizing: “the first thing to note about baptism is that it is a deeply individualizing act. Our parents hand us over, often quite literally when sponsors carry us as infants to the font. Deeply bound as we are and always will be to our parents, we do not... Read more
In his book, Erotic Faith , Robert M. Polhemus offers an intriguing analysis of Bronzino’s Allegory with Venus and Cupid . The allegory suggests that “worship of Venus . . . blinds one to the menace of time and death.” Seeking sexual fulfillment means “betraying self, God, and humankind as a whole . . . To deify seductive eroticism and give way to the moment is to court destruction and set loose anarchy.” (more…) Read more
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