French historian Alain Besancon raises this question in a fine article in Commentary . He suggests that religions can be classified as either revealed or natural, and asks whether Christians and Jews can regard Islam as either of these. Christians and Jews cannot consider Islam a revealed religion, he claims, because the elements of the Qur’an taken from the Bible are not recognizable to Christians and Jews: “The Abraham of Genesis is not the Ibrahim of the Qur’an; Moses is... Read more
Joshua Muravchik has a devastating analysis of Richard Clarke and his book in the May 2004 issue of Commentary . He compares Clarke’s book to a comic book, with Clinton playing SuperPresident and the Bush administration as the enemy of the people. The most amusing note in the article is this footnote, where Muravchik qualifies his claim that Against All Enemies is a comic book: “One way in which Against All Enemies differs from a comic book is in its... Read more
New Republic legal correspondent Jeffrey Rosen argues that there are built-in brakes on the spread of gay marriage from Massachusetts to the rest of the country. Opponents of gay marriage fear that gay couples will flock to Massachusetts, get married, and return home to demand that their marriages be recognized in their home states. Rosen points out that existing laws would seem to prevent that. Massachusetts state law, for example, “refuses to recognize marriages celebrated in Massachusetts if they take... Read more
Ryan Lizza describes Kerry’s current campaign strategy as a version of Muhammed Ali’s old “rope-a-dope” technique. While Bush hammers away with hooks and uppercuts, Kerry just stays on the robes and takes a beating. Meanwhile, he has been raising tons of money, which he can save to use after Bush has expended a good deal of his. A couple of stats show that the strategy might be working: “As Tad Devine a senior Kerry strategist, pointed out in an April... Read more
Ryan Lizza describes Kerry’s current campaign strategy as a version of Muhammed Ali’s old “rope-a-dope” technique. While Bush hammers away with hooks and uppercuts, Kerry just stays on the robes and takes a beating. Meanwhile, he has been raising tons of money, which he can save to use after Bush has expended a good deal of his. A couple of stats show that the strategy might be working: “As Tad Devine a senior Kerry strategist, pointed out in an April... Read more
In Amos 3:7, the prophet says “Yahweh God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets.” This is a fairly obvious allusion back to Genesis 18:17-18, where Yahweh says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?” And Yahweh goes on to inform Abraham, the prophet (Gen 20:7) about the... Read more
Luke 22:24-30 As I mentioned last week in connection with priesthood, there is a sense in which we can talk about a priestly stage of Israel?s history and a priestly stage of life. But the more fundamental reality of the NT is that all members of Christ are priests. And the same is true of kingship. Some have fuller rule and authority than others, but all the people of God have been made kings and priests to God through the... Read more
In Rom 5:1-11, Paul twice mentions salvation as a future experience for the believer (vv 9, 10). The salvation he has in view is particularly rescue from the wrath of judgment, which might have either an historical or eschatological focus. The just are like Noah, who are “saved” when God destroys the world; the first-century just will be saved from the wrath poured out on Judaism in the first century. This same pattern would also be evident in the final... Read more
The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery entry on “enemy” points out that “groaning” in the Psalms is “frequently focused on the enemy, such as the anguished rhetorical lament, ‘How long will my enemy triumph over me?’” The article points out that Paul adopts this same groaning lament in Rom 7:24, but the same idea lies behind Paul’s description of the creation and the believer in Rom 8:18-25. Creation “groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now” and through the... Read more
Robert Kagan ‘s acclaimed little book, Paradise and Power , offers the following insightful analysis into the contemporary European vision of the world and the European hostility to and suspicion of US power. After WW2, Kagan writes, “European strategy culture” set out on a program of “conscious rejection of the European past, a rejection of the evils of European Machtpolitik.” As Joschka Fischer, Germany’s Foreign Minister, puts it, “The core of the concept of Europe after 1945 was and still... Read more
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