Idiopoiesis

Last updated on: February 18, 2013 at 11:30 am By Peter Leithart

In an old (1957) Church History article, George Huntston Williams explored the sacramental background to various atonement theories. Patristic theories ( Christus Victor in its various forms) he associates with baptism; Anselm with penitence and Eucharist. Along the way he notes that Athanasius speaks of baptismal appropriation of the work of Christ as idiopoiesis , “making-one’s-own.” In my own study of Athanasius (Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality) , I emphasize his use of idios , which is key... Read more

Illumination and Investiture

Last updated on: February 18, 2013 at 11:13 am By Peter Leithart

In a 2006 article in the Westminster Theological Journal , William Wilder offers a sharp interpretation of the significance of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” and the clothing of Adam and Eve with animal skins in Genesis 3. He makes the striking point that “the most important clues to the significance of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil come from the mouth of the serpent,” since he links the tree to wisdom, opened eyes,... Read more

The Forgotten Reformation?

Last updated on: February 18, 2013 at 10:51 am By Peter Leithart

James B. Jordan outlines features of the forgotten Reformation in the first of a series of essays at the Trinity House site. Read more

Eucharistic meditation

Last updated on: February 17, 2013 at 7:13 am By Peter Leithart

Colossians 2:11: In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. You are circumcised, Paul says. You, Gentile Christians, who have been buried with Jesus in baptism, you are true Jews because by baptism you receive the circumcision of Christ. Christian circumcision strips off the body of flesh. For Paul, “flesh” refers to ancestry, the privileges of birth, culture, and race. Jews boasted... Read more

Exhortation

Last updated on: February 17, 2013 at 6:51 am By Peter Leithart

The liturgy is not all confession of sin, or singing, or listening, or eating and drinking. We can’t do all these things at once. We do one after another. The church year stretches the liturgy over twelve months. Each season has its own flavor. Lent is the confession of the church year, and it yields to Easter, which leads to Ascension and Pentecost. An annual season of self-examination, confession and repentance is as normal and healthy as a confession in... Read more

Veiled Bride

Last updated on: February 16, 2013 at 6:29 am By Peter Leithart

It’s not difficult to see how allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs inspires the topsy-turvy world of Jewish and Christian mysticism. The poem speaks of the veiling of the bride (1:7; 4:1, 3; 6:7). That’s natural and literal, of course, since ancient Israelite women wore veils (Genesis 24:65; 38:14). But when we move to allegory, it gets tangled, especially if we think, as we should, that the Song is full of temple allegory. If Lover and Beloved are Yahweh... Read more

Korean Christ

Last updated on: February 15, 2013 at 4:00 pm By Peter Leithart

In her numbing account of North Korea, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea , Barbara Demick observes that what set Kim Il-sung apart among twentieth-century tyrants was his sensitivity to the uses of faith: “His maternal uncle was a Protestant minister back in the pre-Communist days when Pyongyang had such a vibrant Christian community that it was called the ‘Jerusalem of the East.’ Once in power, Kim Il-sung closed the churches, banned the Bible, deported believers to the... Read more

Who’s Haman?

Last updated on: February 15, 2013 at 3:35 pm By Peter Leithart

When the two witnesses are killed, the people of the land rejoice by exchanging gifts (Revelation 11:10). In the first century, gift-giving was not Christmasy but Purimy. After Mordecai triumphed over Haman, Jews celebrated by sending gifts to the poor (Esther 9:20-22). For the people of the land, the death of the witnesses is the defeat of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, the Agagite, the final Amalekite. For the people of the land, who are Jews, the two witnesses... Read more

Joined in death

Last updated on: February 15, 2013 at 3:19 pm By Peter Leithart

Two witnesses come to the city to breath fire, shut up the heavens, turn water to blood, bring plagues (Revelation 11). The people of the city kill them. What lies on the street is “their body” ( ptoma , v. 8) and that’s what the peoples and tribes and nations gaze at (v. 9). Two witnesses, but one corpse, a corpse that belongs to “them” ( auton ). Like the man of God of Judah and the old prophet of... Read more

Type and Atonement

Last updated on: February 15, 2013 at 12:51 pm By Peter Leithart

Christ’s Passion, Thomas says ( ST III, 48, 3), doesn’t seem to be a sacrifice: “human flesh was never offered up in the sacrifices of the Old Law” and were indeed condemned (citing Psalm 105:38). Thomas replies by emphasizing the figural character of the Old Covenant. Christ’s death was prefigured or typified in the sacrifices of the Old Law, but the similarity is not total: “truth must go beyond the figure.” It is the most perfect sacrifice because, being flesh,... Read more