The dragon mounts three attacks on the woman (Revelation 12). First, he stands ready to attack the laboring woman and gobble up her child (vv. 1-4). The child is snatched away to heaven and the woman flees to the wilderness. Here the dragon is taking the role of Herod, who sought to wipe out the threat from Jesus at the outset. Second, he is thrown from heaven and mounts a direct attack on the child-less woman (vv. 13-14). Again she... Read more
Declan Marmion and Rik Van Nieuwenhove’s 2011 Introduction to the Trinity is an excellent introduction to both the history of Trinitarian theology and to contemporary discussions. The authors adopt what they call a “participative and sapiential” approach to theology, one that rejects the separation of faith and reason and of spirituality and study. They focus on the interaction between Scripture and Trinitarian theology, and highlight the way that the doctrine of the Trinity brings relationality and personality. They have read widely... Read more
Cherubim have four faces, similar to four creatures: ox, lion, eagle, man. In two passages in Daniel, all of these faces become faces of Babylon. When he falls from reason, Nebuchadnezzar pastures in the field like cattle, and his hair grows like eagle feathers (4:33). Three out of four: He is a man, but he eats like and ox and has hair like an eagle. The first sea beast in Daniel 7 represents the Babylonian empire. It is a lion... Read more
Cherubim have four faces, similar to four creatures: ox, lion, eagle, man. In two passages in Daniel, all of these faces become faces of Babylon. When he falls from reason, Nebuchadnezzar pastures in the field like cattle, and his hair grows like eagle feathers (4:33). Three out of four: He is a man, but he eats like and ox and has hair like an eagle. The first sea beast in Daniel 7 represents the Babylonian empire. It is a lion... Read more
Haydn White argued that historical writing was disciplined as it moved from the sublime to the beautiful. As a result, modern historical writing is “domesticated” as it strips away all the tropes that lend themselves to the strange and terrifying possibilities of the sublime. In History and Tropology (15-16) F. R. Ankersmit questions that point and observes that the very distinction opens up other possibilities for history writing. He characterizes White’s project as an effort to remove “everything that might not... Read more
Responding to a recent post on superheroes, a friend pointed me to this, where Betsy Phillips points out that Superman was invented by two Jews and modeled on Moses. Phillips writes: “Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster weren’t patterning Superman after Jesus. They were patterning him after Moses. A woman has a baby she cannot keep or he’ll die. She puts him in a small ship, of sorts, and sends him off, hoping some other woman will take him in, raise him,... Read more
Rejoice when you are persecuted, Jesus tells His disciples, “for in the same way they persecuted (dioko) the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12). Which prophets were those? The only prophet to speak directly of being persecuted is Jeremiah, who prays that those who persecute (LXX dioko) him (15:15; 17:18). One difficulty here is linguistic: Both the Greek dioko and the Hebrew radaph generally mean “pursue, chase, put to flight.” Thus, for instance, the Egyptians “persecute/pursue” Israel as they... Read more
The following is a response from Gerry McDermott to my response to his response to my essay. The remainder of this post is from Gerry: I agree that Newman’s “continuity of principle” can be slippery in application. The question begged is indeed, “Who decides”? Which makes the question all the more important for Protestants. Liberal Protestants have chucked the theological tradition and even the Bible as normative for answering the question. For, as they would say, the tradition and the... Read more
Next door, my friend Gerald McDermott responds to my piece on tradition with a brief exposition of Newman’s theory of the development of doctrine. Gerry is right that I agree with a lot of what Newman has to say about tradition and development, and the corruptions that Newman protested were corruptions indeed (liberalism and antinomianism, not Lutheranism). But I think I disagree, if not with Newman at least with some of the ways “development of doctrine” is construed. Let me begin with a clarification.... Read more
Every spring, basketball takes over my life for several weeks. I still function: I continue to do those things I tell my kids constitutes my “work.” I eat, sleep, talk, teach, write. But for a few weeks baseketball is my life. A Brazilian friend went through something similar recently – something about another game that uses a round ball, a net, and requires quick footwork. If you asked me, even during an NBA finals game, “Is basketball really that important,”... Read more
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