In his massive new The Gospel of John: A Commentary (115-6), Frederick Dale Bruner has this to say about Jesus’ promise to Nethaniel in John 1:51. He notes, first, that this is the first time Jesus speaks about Jesus; it is “Jesus’ first self-identification in a Gospel that is full of self-identifications.” That it closes the chapter that begins with the prologue on the Word is significant. The prologue ends with a declaration about seeing glory; the chapter ends with... Read more
My friend John Barach pointed me to an interview with Peter Jackson in which Jackson explained the reasons for the change in the ending of the LOTR. Jackson did not, he claims, want to make Frodo heroic; he wanted to leave Frodo with the sense that he failed. Jackson said, “we still tried to preserve what was important to Tolkien — the sense that it was the pity that [resolved the conflict.] There’s nothing that takes away from that. If... Read more
In the two years I spent in graduate studies with Peter Leithart at New Saint Andrews College, he taught me how to be a good student by being a good student himself. Dr. Leithart read texts with us charitably and patiently. He fully engaged his imagination in reading the Bible and theology while remaining steadfastly orthodox. And, perhaps most significantly, he never stopped fancying himself a student, always expecting to learn something, both from the texts and from his students... Read more
Jenson ( Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God (Systematic Theology (Oxford Hardcover)) (Vol 1) , 138-9) summarizes how “the christological concept of ‘nature’ has swung back and forth between unhelpful abstraction, as it denoted merely the list of attributes a god or human being must have, and disastrous concretion, as it has denoted ’ the Logos’ or ’ the man’ Jesus.” He suggests that what is needed is an understanding of nature that “does not achieve concretion by the... Read more
We address Jesus, Jenson argues, personally, as “human beings to a human being” ( Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God (Systematic Theology (Oxford Hardcover)) (Vol 1) , 137 ). But this man that we address has died and risen, and therefore “we see and hear and touch him in the special way called sacrament.” He elaborates: “What we see or touch or hear does not look or feel or sound like a member of the species homo sapiens, but... Read more
Summarizing the various Christologies that led to Chalcedon, Jenson ( Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God (Systematic Theology (Oxford Hardcover)) (Vol 1) , 130-3) points to the fateful influence of Leo’s Tome. It affirms the “unobjectionable” claim that Jesus is “true God” and “true man,” but then adds: “Each nature is the agent of what is proper to it, working in fellowship with the other: the Word doing what belongs to the Word and the flesh what belongs to... Read more
Pannenberg ( Jesus – God and Man (scm classics) , 285 ) offers a more sympathetic summary of Schleiermacher’s Christology than I have done. He agrees that Schleiermacher’s definition of “nature” as “a limited being existing in opposition to others” doesn’t fly: It “does not meet the patristic doctrine, since its concept of nature is interchangeable with the concept of being.” This addresses also to Schleiermacher’s objection that the language of Trinitarian theology and Christology clash. But Pannenberg thinks that... Read more
In a 2003 article in the Harvard Theological Review , Lori Peterson argues that “Schleiermacher, while criticizing Chalcedon for its supposed inconsistencies, nevertheless forges a Christology that has strong ‘Antiochene’ and ‘Alexandrian’ elements within it.” Specifically, “Schleiermacher’s Christology continues the ‘Antiochene’ tradition of protecting the absolute integrity of Jesus’ human identity while at the same time maintaining a more ‘Alexandrian’ emphasis on a single (divine) subject that is the source of all Christ’s redemptive activities.” Pearson claims that Schleiermacher attempts... Read more
Isaiah 54:11: O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold I will set your stones in antimony, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. When Yahweh rebuilds Jerusalem, He promises to make the city glorious. Her original stones were impressive, but the new Jerusalem will be built with sapphires, rubies, diamonds, and gleaming metals. Jerusalem becomes a shining city of precious stones only after she has been destroyed and rebuilt. Her stones are smoothed as she goes through the... Read more
“Epiphany” means “manifestation,” and during this season of the church year we commemorate Jesus’ manifestation to the magi, the firstfruits of the Gentiles. Epiphany announces that Jesus is King of all nations. As Head of all things, Jesus is your Head. By manifesting Jesus as King, Epiphany also calls you to acknowledge that you are a servant of King Jesus. It’s not enough to hear the King’s word. If you hear without doing, you’re building your house on sand, and... Read more
Leithart
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