Scriptural Use of “Justification”

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

James White (in The God Who Justifies )issues this important caution in his treatment of the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek word-groups for justification and righteousness: “there are obvious instances in which the biblical term speaks of a moral or ethical quality when it speaks of someone being righteous. Protestants do not by any stretch of the imagination assert that the words ‘righteousness’ and ‘justification,’ always, and in every instance, refer solely and completely to a divine act of... Read more

Incredibles

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:44 pm By Peter Leithart

I’m not the first one to notice, by any means, but let me chime in: The Incredibles is an overt attack on egalitarianism. All the bad guys in the movie want to flatten out the differences between “supers” and everyone else – the litigious people who are injured during rescues, Bob Par’s (!) boss at the insurance company who sees everyone as an interchangeable cog in a corporate machine, the big bad guy Syndrome who wants to release the secrets... Read more

Reno on Genesis

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

Rusty Reno had some sharp observations on the importance of creatio ex nihilo in a paper giving a preview of his theological commentary on Genesis. He said that it fit with the overall Scriptural polemic against idolatry, and demonstrates that idolatry is fundamentally nihilism ?Edevotion to nothing, what does not exist. It also manifests what Reno elegantly referred to as the Bible’s “ontological parsimony.” Instead of the crowded gnostic ontology, full of intervening beings and levels between the High God... Read more

Written or Oral?

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:48 pm By Peter Leithart

Does the OT show signs of being a product of long oral tradition? In his 2004 book Biblical Narrative and the Death of the Rhapsode (Indiana University Press), Robert S. Kawashima argues that it does not. He believes that the Bible manifests a very different narrative art from the epic tradition of both the ANE and ancient Greece, and sets out to explain the difference. He argues that the difference lies primarily in the fact that epic is an oral... Read more

Gathercole on Sin in Romans

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Simon Gathercole had some interesting points in his paper on “Jewish and Gentile sin in Paul.” He wanted to show that the “history of sin” was revelatory of God’s character, and had an integral role in the work of redemption. He defended this thesis by examining parallels between Romans 1:18-32 and 7:7-25. Each of these passages includes a reference to revelation, which produces knowledge that is suppressed or that deceives. Sinful action then leads to death. Romans 1 according to... Read more

Hauerwas on “Radical Democracy”

Last updated on: November 24, 2004 at 5:22 pm By Peter Leithart

Stanley Hauerwas gave an interesting paper offering a Christian defense of “Radical Democracy.” He covered some of the work of John Howard Yoder, who on Hauerwas’ reading is by no means politically quietist, albeit he is a pacifist. The most interesting portion of the lecture, though, was Hauerwas’ summary of the work of Sheldon Wolin regarding the contribution that Christianity made to political thought. According to Wolin, Plato was the first to raise the question of political life as a... Read more

Hauerwas on “Radical Democracy”

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:43 pm By Peter Leithart

Sermon Outline, First Sunday in Advent

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:01 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION Advent (the word means ?coming?E focuses our attention on the incarnation of the Son of God, but the incarnation of the Son of God not only tells us about the Son. The Son became incarnate so that He could reveal God to us, all of God, Father, Son and Spirit. This Advent, we will be exploring how the incarnation of the Son reveals the Trinity, and what the Trinity means for us. THE TEXT ?Now in the sixth month... Read more

Placing the Name

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

Sandra Richter gave a very stimulating paper on the use of the phrase “place my name there” in Deuteronomy. Her main concern was to argue that the “place where my name dwells” in Dt 12 is fulfilled within Dt in chapter 27, with the ceremony of covenant-renewal at Mount Ebal. She suggested that Ebal looms much larger in biblical history than many have believed. The most interesting part of the paper for me, however, was Richter’s interpretation of the phrase... Read more

De Lubac and the Bible

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:52 pm By Peter Leithart

There were a few interesting insights from the session on de Lubac and biblical interpretation at SBL this morning. Margaret Adam of Duke presented a comparative study of Frei and de Lubac, arguing that Frei’s notion of a “stretchy literal sense” does not do justice to the complexity of Scripture, the actual phenomenon of hermeneutical and interpretive difference, and betrays a faulty view of nature and grace. De Lubac came off better on all counts. The last point was particularly... Read more