Sedulius Scottus (On Christian Rulers, 66-7) offers this lyrical description of the beauty of good rule: “There are seven things more beautiful than God’s other creations, as wise men say: the cloudless sky, when it marvelously resembles the color of silver; the sun in its brilliance, when in its orbit it illumines the world’s inhabitants with its glorious splendor; the moon in its fullness with its face uncovered by the retreating clouds, when in its proper course it follows in... Read more
O’Regan (Theology and the Spaces of Apocalyptic, 113-4) deftly captures the limits and use of Derrida. Limits first, and there are severe: Derrida is not “adequate for Christian theology,” he argues, because “as theo-logy, there is presumtively a reality whose very nature it seems it to self-disclose, and since as theo-logy there is a Word spoken that articulates itself in words and in and as a determinate content that is binding in a quite obtrusive fashion.” Yet: Derrida (and Benjamin)... Read more
Christian reception of the work of Walter Benjamin is often set in the context of Christian reception of Jewish messianism or Jewish apocalyptic. In a brilliant summary of Benjamin, Cyril O’Regan (Theology and the Spaces of Apocalyptic, 61-8) contests this characterization. Despite Benjamin’s claim that he is settled in the tradition of Kabbalah, he dispenses with all the textual interest of Kabbalah: He “neither leaves intact the interpretive steps of classical Kabbalah, nor acknowledges the sacredness of the texts submitted... Read more
The Spirit is upon the Servant of Yahweh (Isaiah 61:1), and where the Spirit is, there is new creation (cf. Genesis 1:2). The mission of the Servant is fittingly described in a complex of seven infinitive clauses (vv. 1-3): A) Yahweh anointed Me 1) to proclaim good news to the meek B) (Yahweh) sent Me . . . (more…) Read more
The Servant of Yahweh is anointed to proclaim the “acceptable year of Yahweh” and the “day of vengeance of our God” and to comfort the mourners (Isaiah 61:2). These are not opposites. They proclaim the same fact from different angles, and the connection is underscored by a Hebrew play on the words naqam (“vengeance”) and nacham (“comfort”). In Isaiah, comfort is not therapeutic; it is not soothing that enables someone to tolerate intolerable conditions. Comfort is a change of condition.... Read more
The word “liberty” (deror) is rarely used in the Hebrew Bible, and the terms for its use are set by Leviticus 25, the laws of Jubilee. There, liberty includes the freeing of slaves, as whenZedekiah proclaims liberty to slaves (Jeremiah 34:8-16). But the specific liberty that is proclaimed at Jubilee is that the people are allowed to return to their ancestral inheritance in the land (Leviticus 25:10). Isaiah’s Servant is anointed by the Spirit to proclaim the same liberty, this... Read more
Some months ago, I wrote a brief piece on the “tragedy” of conversion.I used the word “tragedy” in the sense I develop in Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, & Hope In Western Literature. The word describes a conception of history and metaphysics in which the original is by definition better than anything subsequent. For tragic worldviews, decline is built into the nature of things. Ancient myths of a lost golden age are tragic because the end is always less than the... Read more
Registration is now open for the Easter term intensive course on holistic mission at Trinity House. The course will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, March 17-21, 2014. The goal of missions is to build holistic, sustainable, and self-propagating Christian communities, or to use the Biblical idiom, to build the City of God. In our globalized world where urban populations now exceed rural ones, and where over a billion people live in shanty towns in extreme poverty, we... Read more
The word ‘anaw, “humble” or “meek” is used 13x in the Psalter. It refers to a social position; it’s not only, or even primarily, an attitude of mind, but a life-condition. The meek are the afflicted, low-born, abused. Within the Psalter the word forms a story-arc of sorts. Early on, the Psalmist assures the humble that the Lord hears and remembers them (Psalm 9:12, 18; 10:12, 17). The Lord promises food (Psalm 22:26) and joy (34:2; cf. 69:32). At 37:11,... Read more
Miles Kimball of the University of Michigan argues that supporting gay marriage is support for religious freedom. After all, most of the opposition to gay marriage is religious, and in America we aren’t permitted to impose our religion on other people. Besides, Kimball says, gay marriage is an avenue for spiritual development for the gays who are married, and it is unconstitutional to close off that path of advance to people just because of their sexual preferences. Kimball affirms that... Read more
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