In his 1959 Luther the Expositor, Jaroslav Pelikan remarked on the tendency of church historians to neglect the main thing in theologians of the past: “Entire histories have been written – histories of a whole section of the church, of an era in church history or of a major theological problem which do not seriously consider the possibility that at least one of the decisive elements in the thought and action of a Christian man or group may have been the... Read more
According to Augustine, all of Constantine’s achievements were gifts of God Read more
In the terrible trial scene in Till We Have Faces, the gods strip away layer after layer of Queen Orual’s self-justification, and when she has been laid bare, she finally has something to say to them: “Lightly men talk of saying what they mean. Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, ‘Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really... Read more
“Who’s afraid of modern art?” asks Daniel Siedell. He answers, “I am.” As critic and curator, Siedell is passionately devoted to modern art. It frightens him because that is what it’s supposed to do. Munch’s The Scream, for instance, doesn’t just express the painters own anxieties. It is “an attempt to externalize the fear that plagued him, the fear that no one could hear him scream, that what coursed through nature actually coursed through his veins, and his alone. For... Read more
The first six chapters of Revelation are a pep talk. Again and again, Jesus makes promises to the victors, those who overcome (nikao). They’ll get the tree of life, escape the second death, eat hidden manna, gain authority over the nations, receive a white robe, become pillars in the temple, get a place on Jesus’ throne. Jesus can guarantee all this because He is the Lamb, the Lion of Judah, who overcomes (5:5), and who goes out as a rider... Read more
Scot Hafemann has recently published a collection of previously published essays on Pauline themes, Paul’s Message and Ministry in Covenant Perspective. Hafemann’s characteristic themes are here, most reflected in the title: A covenantal understanding of Paul’s gospel and theology, a pastoral focus, an emphasis on the role of suffering in ministry, Paul’s use of Old Testament Scripture, especially in 2 Corinthians. In an early footnote (xiii, fn 7), Hafemann explains his remark that “Paul’s understanding of the eschatological new covenant inaugurated... Read more
Donald Norwood reminds us in Reforming Rome that the Reformers were eager for a ecumenical council to resolve the conflicts sparked by the Reformation. In 1560, Calvin writes, “In order to put an end to the divisions which exist in Christianity, there is need to have a free and universal council” (quoted 38). Trent was not that council. Convened by the Pope, Calvin and the other Reformers were suspicious that it would tilt toward the curia. A few Protestants went to... Read more
Donald Norwood’s Reforming Rome is a study of Karl Barth’s contributions and responses to Vatican II. At the outset, Norwood has to establish that Barth, polemical as he was, was truly a catholic theologian. He offers several lines of argument: “In his first teaching post at Gottingen in 1921 [Barth] was appointed to teach ‘Reformed Dogmatics’ but declined to do so.” Barth reasoned, “If theology is about God and about expounding the Word of God, can there be such a... Read more
A lovely passage on Providence from Augustine (City of God, 5.11). God cannot leave the kingdoms of men, “their dominations and servitudes,” outside His providence. That is not the kind of God He is. Instead: “God supreme and true, with His Word and Holy Spirit (which three are one), one God omnipotent, creator and maker of every soul and of every body; by whose gift all are happy who are happy through verity and not through vanity; who made man a... Read more
In his recent study of John of Damascus, Perichoresis and Personhood, Charles Twombly expresses concern that contemporary theologians use traditional concepts and formulae “in a manner that betrays little understanding of how they actually developed.” By attending to the way John uses the term, we can “lay claim to a truer and stronger sense of its character in the context of classical doctrine” (3-4). John uses the term to express certain kinds of relationships, specifically the relation “of three ‘persons’... Read more
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