The following is a more extensive version of a post from February 2004, under the same title. INTRODUCTION My thesis is developed over against a widespread conception of the Renaissance as the beginning of the modern world, the beginning of secularism and humanism. I am not an uncritical fan of the Renaissance, but I think that this reading of the Renaissance is terribly one-sided, and I want to restore it to an honorable place in the history of Christian culture... Read more
For reasons that I’ll detail in a subsequent post, I’m a considerable fan of Nicholas of Cusa. I was unhappy to come across this from William Cavanaugh: “The origin of the modern concept of religion can be seen clearly in the thought of two fifteenth-century Christian Platonist thinkers, Nicholas of Cusa and Marsilio Ficino. For Cusa, religion is identified not with rites or bodily practices but with an essence that stands behind the practices. The body interfered with true religion.... Read more
For reasons that I’ll detail in a subsequent post, I’m a considerable fan of Nicholas of Cusa. I was unhappy to come across this from William Cavanaugh: “The origin of the modern concept of religion can be seen clearly in the thought of two fifteenth-century Christian Platonist thinkers, Nicholas of Cusa and Marsilio Ficino. For Cusa, religion is identified not with rites or bodily practices but with an essence that stands behind the practices. The body interfered with true religion.... Read more
Michael Budde writes, “Like the Rolling Stones and other major concert acts, the Catholic Church has now taken on corporate sponsorship to underwrite the world tours of its major performer, Pope John Paul II. To finance his 1998 visit to Mexico city, the Archdiocese of Mexico City entered into sponsorship arrangements with more than two dozen firms, most of them major multinationals. The single largest sponsor, the Pepsi Cola-owned Sabritas chip company, paid $1.8 million for the right to use... Read more
Thomas explained the Triune Persons as subsistent relations: “As to essence, the Father is in the Son because the Father is his essence and he shares it with the Son without any change taking place in himself.” Stephen Long explains Thomas’s claim that Father, Son and Spirit are “subsistent relations” this way: “It means that God is not like us, for we are not constituted entirely by our relations. No matter how much I seek to give myself to my... Read more
The story of 2 Kings 1 is undoubtedly meant humorously. Ahaziah falls ill and sends messengers off to consult with Baal-zebub, baal of the flies. On the way, his messengers meet a “baal of hair,” Elijah – right title, wrong god. Yahweh will not allow Ahaziah’s men ever to get to Ekron, for they turn back as soon as Elijah speaks to them. After that, Baal-zebub is just forgotten. Ahaziah doesn’t send another embassy to Ekron, but keeps sending regiments... Read more
Here are some highlights of Marjorie Garber?s essay on Richard III in Shakespeare After All . 1) Garber suggests that Richard is the ?first fully realized and psychologically conceived character?Ein Shakespeare?s plays. Richard?s character is fully realize because he is complex, protean, chameleon and Machiavellian (cf. 3 Henry VI 3.2.191-193). Throughout the play, he speaks with two voices, a public and a private, though ultimately these voices collapse together in Richard?s schizophrenic ?monologue?Eon Bosworth Field. (more…) Read more
A further note from Haight: One of the criticisms he lodges against Aquinas and scholasticism is that it tended to treat grace and conversion in a mechanistic fashion: “This is a fundamental distortion of the dynamics of grace when it is seen contrasted with a personalist description, and it has had enormous consequences in the history of the conception of grace. One has only to think of the seemingly mechanical loss and gain through sin and confession that has characterized... Read more
Underlying different doctrines of justification, and inseparable from them, are different notions of grace. The historical issues have been ably summarized by Roger Haight in his 1979 book, The Experience and Language of Grace. (more…) Read more
INTRODUCTION Ahab?s son continues in his father?s ways, worshiping Baal and seeking Baal?s aid rather than looking to Yahweh. But there is a God in Israel, and Elijah is His prophet. And Elijah is like the flame of God burning away the dross of Israel. (more…) Read more
Leithart
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