In offering his nominations for “Books of the Year,” Tom Shippey (TLS, Dec 5) tells the following story: “Some years ago a Farmborough biker with an interest in the occult climbed Glastonbury Tor and asked the Goddess to help him find Excalibur before the next full moon. The day before the deadline he saw a sword in an antique shop ?Eit was the stage prop which had represented Excalibur in the John Boorman film. He accepted this as a sign,... Read more
How is it that the unity of the Church shows the world that the Father has sent the Son, as Jesus says in John 17? There are doubtless many dimensions to this, but here’s one possibility: The unity of the disciples, the way they share their lives together in harmony and peace, the way the disciples live in self-giving love, is so utterly INHUMAN that the world will see that something more than human is at work in the church.... Read more
Rich Lusk of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, LA, put me onto the works of M.F. Sadler, a late 19th-century Anglican theologian, and I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve found there. For example: In the first chapter of his Church Doctrine, Bible Truth , Sadler points out that the “gospel” as described in the NT is a set of facts centering on the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. He then asks how this gospel is... Read more
Eucharistic Meditation for Fourth Sunday in Advent: I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon today the error that some Christians have fallen into of resting the whole of our redemption on the incarnation itself. They treat Christmas as if it were detachable from the life of Jesus, from Good Friday, from Easter, from Ascension, from Pentecost. Scripture does not allow that: It is through the WORD and WORK of the incarnate Son that we are saved; and it is... Read more
Exhortation for Fourth Sunday in Advent: For many the Christmas season is not a time of good cheer but almost the opposite. It’s a time of frustration, anxiety, bad temper, family strife, and disappointed expectations. It’s a time when kids eat too much candy, which leads first to hyperactivity and then to grumpiness until a dark surly cloud descends on the whole house. Plus, Dad is home from work for several days, and just gets in the way. Older kids... Read more
Most commentators accept that Romans 3:5a offers a legitimate conclusion, but one whose implications must be carefully qualified. From the quotation of Psalm 51, it is argued, Paul draws the inference that the unrighteousness of Israel commends or establishes or somehow contributes to the righteousness of God. BUT, so the argument goes, this does not mean that God is unjust to exert wrath, for then He could not be judge of the world (and every Jew knows He is). Nor... Read more
What kind of mindset would even raise the question Paul poses in Romans 3:3? On what basis would it follow that the APISTIA (unfaithfulness) of Israel would nullify the PISTIS THEOU, the faithfulness of God? This would follow only if God’s faithfulness to His promises, and His faithfulness to His intention to bring light and life to the nations, depended on Israel. That is, this objection only makes sense if someone is operating on a massive kind of Pelagianism –... Read more
Romans 3:1-8 picks up on a number of themes and concerns that reach back to the first chapter of the letter, especially the crucial verses in 1:16ff. Although unrighteousness (ADIKIA) has been a topic in chapter 2, the contrast between the ADIKIA of man (and of Jews in particular) and the “righteousness of God” (DIKAIOSUNE THEOU) is unique to 1:17-18 and 3:5. In fact, the phrase “righteousness of God” that first appears in 1:17 appears for the second time in... Read more
Speaking of James Wood, there’s a devastating review of his novel, The Book Against God in the December issue of First Things . Dermot Quinn is underimpressed with Wood’s “painterly” writing style, and pans the supposed depths of the issues that Wood raises. According to Quinn, “Wood’s atheism began as adolescent revolt and, conceptually, has not gone much beyond it.” The thinness of the main character’s (one Thomas Bunting) atheism is, for Quinn, a deliberate ploy, which turns Wood’s book... Read more
Speaking of James Wood, there’s a devastating review of his novel, The Book Against God in the December issue of First Things . Dermot Quinn is underimpressed with Wood’s “painterly” writing style, and pans the supposed depths of the issues that Wood raises. According to Quinn, “Wood’s atheism began as adolescent revolt and, conceptually, has not gone much beyond it.” The thinness of the main character’s (one Thomas Bunting) atheism is, for Quinn, a deliberate ploy, which turns Wood’s book... Read more
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