Poets and Philosophers

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:04 am By Peter Leithart

Luc Brisson’s 2004 book, How Philosophers Saved Myths examines how both classical and Christian writers in antiquity employed allegorical interpretation to find meaning in ancient mythology. His opening pages offer a neat summary of the transition from poetry/myth-making to philosophy and history in ancient Greece. Writing, he argues, marks a key transition in this history. Poets, he notes, were not merely preservers of ancient traditions, but conduits or mediators between the mythical world beyond and the world of their societies.... Read more

Polkinghorne on God’s knowledge

Last updated on: April 24, 2005 at 7:21 pm By Peter Leithart

Stephen Barr has a fine review of John Polkinghorne’s recent Science and the Trinity (Yale) in the May issue of First Things . Along the way, he offers some sharp and devastating criticisms of Polkinghorne’s unfortunate acceptance of open theism, which Polkinghorne accepts because, in Barr’s words, it “makes room for free will, simplifies theodicy, accords with the developmental nature of the world, and makes God’s knowledgte truer to that which is known.” Barr responds: “The first [argument] was demolished... Read more

Polkinghorne on God’s knowledge

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:04 am By Peter Leithart

Eucharistic Meditation, April 24

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:38 pm By Peter Leithart

?In the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it.?E Growth and learning is awkward and difficult, especially when we are learning about something as complex as another human being, another human being who is radically different from ourselves. As I mentioned in the exhortation, Adam grew in glory, into the glory of marriage, by first going through deep sleep and a division of his rib from the rest of his body. This is... Read more

Exhortation, April 24

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:40 pm By Peter Leithart

This exhortation was inspired by recent lectures by James Jordan. In this morning?s sermon, Pastor Wilson will be talking about learning and growth in marriage, and as he will point out that this growth, even apart from sin, can be awkward and difficult. Between one stage of knowledge and illumination and another can be the darkness of confusion and ignorance. This should not be surprising. This is God?s way with the world, from the first chapter of Genesis and throughout... Read more

More on Romans 8

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION In chapter 8, Paul brings to a climax his discussion of the law, its cooption by sin, and the resulting death. He has shown the law to be weak and helpless in dealing with the condition of sin and death, and now announces that God has done what the law could not do. The Triune God has acted to fulfill His righteousness: God the Father has sent His Son in the likeness of flesh, so that He might condemn... Read more

Baptism and Justification

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:47 pm By Peter Leithart

Does baptism justify? Justification is, of course, an act of God . But that puts the question differently without deflecting it: Does baptism declare a justification for the person baptized? Assuming the Augustinian (and Reformed) view that baptism is an act of God not of man, we may ask, is baptism the declaration of justification? At least twice, Paul makes a direction connection between baptism and justification. Having reminded the Corinthians that they had been the kind of people who... Read more

Romans 8:1

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:02 am By Peter Leithart

Chuck Lowe has a thoughtful analysis of Romans 8:1-4 in an essay in the June 1999 issue of JETS . He argues that the text means just what it says, that there is “no condemnation” because those who are in Christ have been liberated from sin and death through the Spirit, and therefore the eschatological “escape from condemnation [is] contingent upon sanctification.” Lowe argues that this is not in conflict with the Protestant confession of justification by faith, and says... Read more

Law/Gospel and Gnosticism

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:46 pm By Peter Leithart

David Yeago offers a powerful critique of certain construals of the law/gospel distinction in a 1993 article from Pro Ecclesia . He does not doubt that law and gospel must be distinguished, but contends that when the law/gospel distinction becomes the “ultimate structuring horizon of Christian belief.” When the distinction functions in this fashion, theologians operate with a radical contrast between form and freedom; in redeeming us from law, God has redeemed us from any sort of definite structure, whether... Read more

Newman on Justification

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:09 am By Peter Leithart

I hope to post more elaborate comments on Newman’s classic and challenging Lectures on Justification (recently reprinted by Wipf & Stock), but a few tidbits with have to suffice. 1) Newman frames the whole discussion by distinguishing between justification and faith as they are in idea and terminology, and justification and faith as they are in concrete reality. One need not agree with his every application of this distinction to recognize the usefulness of the distinction, and the way it... Read more