John records Jesus’ ringing “It is finished” in his crucifixion narrative. But when he gets to Revelation, John records another declaration that things are “finished.” The angel who gives John the book to eat swears that “the mystery of God is finished” (Revelation 10:7). In context, the mystery of God has something to do with the renewal of creation, since the angel swears in the name of the Creator (v. 6). It’s also something that is about to happen, as... Read more
John’s encounter with the strong angel from heaven is described with a chiasm, and that structure helps solve a puzzle in the passage: a. Strong angel descends from heaven and straddles land and sea, 10:1-2. b. He cries and thunder speaks; what the thunder says is sealed, 10:3-4. c. Oath of the angel, 10:5-7. b’. John eats the book, 10:8-10. a’. John is to prophesy to peoples and nations, 10:11. The a/a’ aren’t directly connected, but we can recognize a... Read more
1 Kings begins with a brief story about David, aging and cold, unable to stay warm at night. It’s pathetic, and also thematic, because throughout 1-2 Kings, a king’s health symbolizes the health of his kingdom. But the roots of the story go deeper. When God first created Adam, he was of earth, made from the adamah. By Greek reckoning, he was cold and dry. It’s not until Eve appears that he is called ish, a word related to esh,... Read more
You know how the curtain parts at the beginning of a play, and you see a new scene, with characters and sets and incidents that had remained hidden up til then? Church last week was like that. Except the curtain was made up of all the things I thought were real – the pastor, the table, the pulpit, the east wall of the church. It all disappeared and behind it I saw things I had never dreamed of. It started... Read more
Timothy Larson of Wheaton has written a number of illuminating, witty books. His latest, The Slain God, examines a neglected chapter in the story of faith-and-modernity, the interaction of anthropology and Christian faith during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Larsen’s book is biographically organized, with a chapter each on Edward Tylor, James Frazer, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Mary Douglas, and Victor and Edith Turner. As he says, the selection nicely covers virtually the whole history of cultural anthropology from its origins to the... Read more
Vladimir Jankelevitch (Le Pur et l’Impur, 11) observes that we apply the concept of purity to wine and milk, defining the purity of beverages in opposition to admixture of other ingredients. In each case “purity” prohibits mixture, especially mixture of a thing with its supposed opposite. Pure poetry is poetry without prose or didactic purpose. Pure music exists without reference to literature and without evoking visual scenes. Pure mathematics is mathematical speculation without any application or use. Pure language is a... Read more
Barth’s theology of justification has many virtues. Let me highlight only a couple of them. For starters, Barth’s is an utterly, manically theocentric account of justification. This comes through in large ways and small. One of the most striking indications of this is the way he deals with the question of the temporal distance between the cross/resurrection and the lives of sinners saved by Christ: How is that temporal distance to be bridged? Barth acknowledges it’s a real question, and... Read more
“Did God need to justify Himself?” Barth asks (Church Dogmatics, IV.1, 567). Does He need to demonstrate His justice to human beings in the world? Barth answers, as expected, No: “He does not need anything.” True enough in the abstract: God needs nothing outside Himself. But once God has determined not to be alone, but to create a world, we might move small step toward need. Creation may not make it strictly necessary for God to justify Himself, but it... Read more
A great Cur Deus Homo moment from Barth (Church Dogmatics, IV.1, 553): “What we men must suffer – if it is to be suffered in accordance with the righteousness of God – can be suffered for us only by God Himself as man: if, that is to say, it is to take place validly and effectively for us all; if it is to be the one and total destruction of wrong and all wrongdoers; if it is to be the... Read more
Barth famously answers Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo? by talking about the “Judge judged in our place” (Church Dogmatics, IV.1). In a passage summarizing the gospel account of Jesus’s life, he gives this remarkable summary of the “exchange of roles” that occurs in the gospel: “Those who are to be judged are given space and freedom and power to judge. The Judge allows himself to be judged. That is why He came to Jerusalem, entering it as a King. He is,... Read more
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