So Kobe’s done, going out in grand style with 60 points as he led the Lakers to a comeback win. Few sports stars go out with as much fanfare, or do as well in playing up to the hype. But the debate about Kobe’s greatness will continue, and his last game shows why. He scored 60, but it took him 42 minutes and 50 shots to get there. Next door at ESPN, Steph Curry gets plays 30 minutes, takes half... Read more
Two groups rush away from Jesus’ empty tomb. Both of them have news. The women came to the tomb looking for Jesus, but now they have heard the angel’s announcement that Jesus is risen, and obey the angel’s command to go to the disciples and announce the resurrection to them. Along the way, Jesus Himself appears to them and repeats the instructions. Matthew uses a verb here that contains the word “angel,” which in Greek simply means “messenger.” They go... Read more
Francis’s I’s pastoral exhortation on family life, Amoris laetitia, will inevitably, and rightly, be the subject of scrutiny by Catholic theologians and canon lawyers. A great deal is at stake. But it’s also important to note, as even hostile commentators have, that the controversial passages are set within a letter of exhortation to Catholic parents and children and priests, and that, despite moments of platitudinous cliche, the letter is universally edifying for Christians. Francis is not the poet-theologian John Paul... Read more
In his forthcoming, massive Reformations, Carlos M.N. Eire summarizes the conflicts between Philippists and Gnesio-Lutherans following Luther’s death in 1546. Eire writes, “The most pressing issue in 1548 concerned how much accommodation to Catholicism any Lutheran should be willing to make. Melanchthon’s response to the Augsburg Interim . . . laid out the core compromise he was willing to make concerning theology and ritual, pledging loyalty to the emperor and appealing to the concept of adiaphora, which he defined as... Read more
Patrick Gray’s Paul as a Problem in History and Culture is a wide-ranging study of anti-Paulinism. Biblical scholars are familiar with anti-Paulists who charge that Paul betrayed the message and life of Jesus when he founded Christianity. But the attacks on Paul are ancient and medieval as well as modern, Jewish and Muslim as well as pagan, Deist, or rationalist. Paul has been condemned as a pagan and a Judaizer, a libertine and a joyless moralist, a misogynist and a... Read more
Joshua Jipp argues that Paul’s Areopagus address contains both critique and propaganda, critique of Athenian superstition, lust for novelty, and idolatry, and propaganda in favor of Christian faith as a more consistent fulfillment of the aspirations of Hellenistic philosophical theology. Much of the critique, Jipp shows, is drawn from Isaiah’s idol polemics (which have parallels in Stoic and other texts). For instance, “Isaiah draws the same conclusion as does Paul in Acts 17:24b, namely, because the one God is creator... Read more
Joshua Jipp argues that Paul’s Areopagus address contains both critique and propaganda, critique of Athenian superstition, lust for novelty, and idolatry, and propaganda in favor of Christian faith as a more consistent fulfillment of the aspirations of Hellenistic philosophical theology. Much of the critique, Jipp shows, is drawn from Isaiah’s idol polemics (which have parallels in Stoic and other texts). For instance, “Isaiah draws the same conclusion as does Paul in Acts 17:24b, namely, because the one God is creator... Read more
In a 1972 essay on Les stars, Edgar Morin explains the difference between actors and stars by referring to ancient heroic myths. Stars are heroes of adventure, action, tragedy, and love like the heroes of myths. They are “divinisee et mythique” (39). The star’s mythical, quasi-divine status applies both to the person who plays the parts on film and the parts that he or she plays. For stars, there is a reciprocal relation between actor and role: The star actor... Read more
In a 1972 essay on Les stars, Edgar Morin explains the difference between actors and stars by referring to ancient heroic myths. Stars are heroes of adventure, action, tragedy, and love like the heroes of myths. They are “divinisee et mythique” (39). The star’s mythical, quasi-divine status applies both to the person who plays the parts on film and the parts that he or she plays. For stars, there is a reciprocal relation between actor and role: The star actor... Read more
The Lord’s Supper models a proper meal, but for that very reason it models a properly ordered community, the right order of human society. How we eat together, with whom we eat tells us what kind of community we are. It also presents a model of work, creativity, culture, the whole realm of human making. In the Eucharist, we don’t eat grain, but bread. We don’t drink water or eat grapes from the vine; we drink wine. Both bread and... Read more
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