2014-10-08T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 8, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

It’s common to distinguish two different types of atonement theory – objective and subjective.  Objective theories stress that the death of Jesus achieves something in itself; often objective theories stress the Godward dimension of the atonement, that Jesus has made satisfaction for sin or propitiated wrath by His death. They are objective because the cross aims to achieve something with God, rather than targeting human beings. Subjective theories claim that the aim of Jesus’ death is to transform human beings.... Read more

2014-10-08T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 8, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

A final installment of my review of Naphtali Meshel’s The “Grammar” of Sacrifice. Read more

2014-10-08T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 8, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Dwight Garner isn’t the first to wonder if the Swedish Academy’s commitment to honor “work of an idealistic tendency” has prevented it from rewarding some of the greatest writers of the past century: “Was it lofty Swedish idealism, as some have contended, that in part kept James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov and John Updike, among others, from this most elite creative-world dais?” That loftiness prevents it from recognizing the importance of wit: “If the Nobel committee has a blind spot, it’s... Read more

2014-10-08T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 8, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Dwight Garner isn’t the first to wonder if the Swedish Academy’s commitment to honor “work of an idealistic tendency” has prevented it from rewarding some of the greatest writers of the past century: “Was it lofty Swedish idealism, as some have contended, that in part kept James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov and John Updike, among others, from this most elite creative-world dais?” That loftiness prevents it from recognizing the importance of wit: “If the Nobel committee has a blind spot, it’s... Read more

2014-10-08T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 8, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Opening Heaven’s Floodgates, edited by Jason Silverman, is a wide-ranging collection of essays about the “Genesis flood narrative, its context, and reception.”  The book includes detailed essays on the differing chronologies of the flood narrative in various ancient versions; comparative studies of Mesopotamian and Iranian myths; the use of the flood narrative in Jewish apocalyptic literature; the reception of the flood story in popular ark replicas, in nineteenth-century music, and in apocalyptic film; and the implications of the flood narrative... Read more

2014-10-07T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 7, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Wyatt Mason’s wide-ranging NYT interview with Marilynne Robinson is full of interest for Robinson’s fans. In one of the most incisive portions of the interview, Robinson answers Mason’s question, “What do you think people should be talking about more?” Her consciousness streams in reply: “‘One of the things that bothers me,’ she began, with feeling, ‘is that there are prohibitions of an unarticulated kind that are culturally felt that prevent people from actually saying what they think.’ From there, she raised... Read more

2014-10-07T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 7, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Wyatt Mason’s wide-ranging NYT interview with Marilynne Robinson is full of interest for Robinson’s fans. In one of the most incisive portions of the interview, Robinson answers Mason’s question, “What do you think people should be talking about more?” Her consciousness streams in reply: “‘One of the things that bothers me,’ she began, with feeling, ‘is that there are prohibitions of an unarticulated kind that are culturally felt that prevent people from actually saying what they think.’ From there, she raised... Read more

2014-10-07T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 7, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

After David sins with Bathsheba, the prophet Nathan comes to him with a “case” involving a rich man preying on his poor neighbor. It’s David’s own life, but he doesn’t recognize it, and his words of condemnation get turned against him: “You are the man” (2 Samuel 12). When Absalom murders his half-brother Amnon, Absalom spends several years in exile. Joab conspired to bring Absalom back, and sends a “wise woman of Tekoa” to present a case before David (2... Read more

2014-10-07T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 7, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Zadie Smith finds in a forty-foot beer ad on a nearby wall a summary of a Manhattan creed. Smith writes, “beer used to be sold on the dream of communal fun: have a beer with a buddy, or lots of buddies. People crowded the frame, laughing and smiling. It was a lie about alcohol—as this ad is a lie about alcohol—but it was a different kind of lie, a wide-framed lie, including other people. Here the focus is narrow, almost obsessive. Everything... Read more

2014-10-07T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: October 7, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

At The Week, Damon Linker poses some uncomfortable questions for advocates of same-sex marriage. “Do you support the right of consenting adult brothers and sisters to marry? If not, why not? What legal or moral principle justifies granting marriage rights to unrelated same-sex couples while denying such rights to brothers and sisters? . . . If you do support the right of brothers and sisters to marry, is it because you think there’s nothing wrong with (or even something potentially good about)... Read more

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