Martinus de Boer argues in his Galatians commentary that while “the expression ‘the works of the flesh’ . . . is reminiscent of the expression ‘works of the law,’” they are not equivalent. In fact, they aren’t grammatically parallel at all: “whereas the works of the law are the deeds required by the Mosaic law . . . the works of the Flesh are the deeds, or activities, caused by the flesh, here conceived of as a malevolent cosmic power that has... Read more
We complain about speed a lot. Everything moves too fast to grasp or control. So we find ways to slow down – slow food stands against the McDonaldization of our diets. There’s even a World Institute for Slowness out there. But we don’t want everything to move slow, argues Lutz Koepnick in his recent On Slowness. Sometimes, we still complain about things going too slow. The economic recovery, for instance: “While this desire to slow down one’s life might be extensive,... Read more
The desire of the flesh is set against the desire of the Spirit, Paul says, so that the two are in opposition (Galatians 5:17). Where they clash, the combat stymies human choice: “you may not do the things that you wish” (cf. Romans 7). By returning to the “flesh” of circumcision, the Galatians have placed themselves in that impossible position, incapable of producing the fruit they want to produce. Why? Or, perhaps more answerable: What does flesh desire that puts... Read more
Julia Kristeva’s vigorous, rambling Teresa, My Love is a very personal reaction to the life and writings of Teresa of Avila. Kristeva, a noted feminist cultural theorist, doesn’t share St. Teresa’s faith. Still, she gets to the heart of Teresa’s mysticism in this quotation: “After the dialogical Socrates, before the doubting Montaigne and the cogitating Descartes, this woman had the idea— a biblical idea? baroque? psychoanalytical?—to invent a self-knowledge that can only be realized on condition of an inherent duplication: ‘you... Read more
Julia Kristeva’s vigorous, rambling Teresa, My Love is a very personal reaction to the life and writings of Teresa of Avila. Kristeva, a noted feminist cultural theorist, doesn’t share St. Teresa’s faith. Still, she gets to the heart of Teresa’s mysticism in this quotation: “After the dialogical Socrates, before the doubting Montaigne and the cogitating Descartes, this woman had the idea— a biblical idea? baroque? psychoanalytical?—to invent a self-knowledge that can only be realized on condition of an inherent duplication: ‘you... Read more
Katha Pollitt thinks that advocates of abortion rights have been cowed into meekness. In Pro, she argues that abortion needs to be reclaimed as a “positive social good,” and “an essential option for women — not just ones in dramatic, terrible, body-and-soul-destroying situations, but all women — and thus benefits society as a whole.” According to Clara Jeffery’s NYTBR review, Pollitt’s book aims to highlight the inconsistencies of abortion opponents: “If we hewed to the notion that an embryo achieves personhood... Read more
The scientific revolution is often characterized as a revolution in method. In place of speculative, deductive metaphysical science came experimental, empirical science. Philip Ball (Curiosity) argues that behind this was a revolution in mentality, in the questions that could be asked and investigated: “To the new philosophers, the national world was replete with secrets that they must hunt down diligently with an experimental approach that was closely allied to the tradition of natural magic. This ‘hunt’ was to be engaged... Read more
I summarize and discuss Adam Kotsko’s socio-cultural version of Christus Victor atonement theology at the Trinity House site. Read more
I summarize and discuss Adam Kotsko’s socio-cultural version of Christus Victor atonement theology at the Trinity House site. Read more
An alert former student, Stephen Long, corrects my claim that the OT uses “X knew his wife” in only two places. In addition to Genesis 4 and 1 Samuel 1, there’s Genesis 38:26, where Judah “did not know” his daughter-in-law Tamar again. Long writes, “On the one hand, its existence slightly breaks up the clean appearance of two clusters around the creation of the world and the creation of the Davidic monarchy. On the other hand, it actually fits the... Read more
Leithart
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