Much of Thomas’s discussion of Jesus’ resurrection has an “Abelardian” flavor. The resurrection is less an integral part of the “accomplishment” of redemption and more a support for the life of the believer. Of the five reasons given for the necessity of the resurrection, only one is about the achievement of salvation. The resurrection commends divine justice, confirms faith, raises hope, and sets in order the lives of the faithful ( ST III, 53, 1). Finally, fifthly, he says that... Read more
Christ’s death delivered from sin. It’s less often recognized that Jesus’ death also glorifies; by His suffering, He brings “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). Thomas makes a place for “glorification” as an effect of Christ’s death largely by his attention to the liberation of the saints from Abraham’s bosom or the limbus patrum . Explaining how Christ’s “descent into hell” delivered the “holy fathers” ( ST III, 52, 5), Thomas distinguishes between the debt incurred by personal sin and... Read more
In a review of a surrealism exhibit at the LA County Museum of Art, Sanford Schwartz comments on the dilution in the meaning of the word “surreal”: “Surrealism has entered the language as a synonym for almost anything that seems odd, uncanny, or freaky. For some, the very word connotes a profane, or carnivalesque, lifting of the lid on hidden, even repressed, thoughts and feelings.” Originally, surrealism was “romantic and revolutionary in its goals,” aiming “for radically new approaches to... Read more
Darrin Belousek ( Atonement, Justice, and Peace: The Message of the Cross and the Mission of the Church ) gives a provocative reading of Isaiah 53’s Suffering Servant. He argues that the passage doesn’t teach a penal substitutionary view of the atonement. He isolates two issues: First, he claims that the Servant does not suffer instead of the people but along with them. Since “the penal substitution view . . . claims that the people do not suffer for their... Read more
I address the gay marriage debate again this morning at the First Things site . Read more
The dragon in heaven (Revelation 12:3) has seven heads, ten horns, and seven diadems on his seven heads. There’s a lot going on there, no doubt, but faced with a list like that my instinct is to start adding. It turns out to be a useful operation in this case. The total is 24, which is the number of Ancient Ones enthroned around the Father in Revelation 4. The dragon is a kind of false throne, a counterfeit of the... Read more
The bride of the Song is a closed garden (4:12), her spices and fruits inaccessible, her springs of living water sealed up. Winds blow over the garden of the bride, spreading her fragrance (v. 16). But no one can feast, or drink, or see her beauties, until the Lover enters the garden (5:1). He opens her so that the power of her beauty is opened to the world. Then we allegorize: For the bride is Israel, which is a garden... Read more
Commenting on the Song of Songs 4:10, Paul Griffiths ( Song of Songs (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible) , 108-9 ) points out that love’s wound is not only the result of failed love or love’s absence, but inherent in love itself: “As the lover caresses his beloved’s hair and gazes into her eyes and murmurs the sweet nothings of desire into her ear he wounds her by provoking in her an intensity of delight and desire that she... Read more
Six times in Isaiah, things “break forth” ( patsach ). The word means “break,” as in breaking bones (Micah 3:3), but in Zion the things broken always sing. When you compile all the uses in Isaiah, it amounts to a cosmic chorus. The whole earth breaks into song (14:7); heavens, the lower parts of the earth, mountains, forests, and each tree (44:23); heaven and earth, as well as mountains break out in joy (49:13); the ruins of Jerusalem sing (52:9);... Read more
Yahweh’s name is His name is supposed to be continuously ( tamid ) praised, but it is blasphemed (or “provoked”) continuously ( tamid ; Isaiah 52:5). Yahweh continues: “Therefore My people shall know My name” (v. 6). How “therefore”? How will Israel know Yahweh’s blasphemed name? The answer is found in the structure of verses 3-6. Four times Yahweh speaks; twice He pronounces a “thus says Yahweh” (vv. 3-4), and twice “Yahweh declares” (vv. 5-6). The content of these four... Read more
Leithart
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In