Exodus 28:32-33: Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the doorway of the tent of meeting. Thus they shall eat those things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration; but a layman shall not eat them because they are holy. The ordination service for Aaron and his sons ends with a meal. After they are anointed, invested with priestly robes, daubed with blood, after... Read more
You are priests, ordained to priesthood by baptism, which united you to Jesus Christ, the High Priest of a priestly community. When Aaron and his sons were ordained, Moses smeared blood on their right ear lobes, their right thumbs, their right bog toes. Their ears, hands, and feet became holy ears, holy hands, and holy feet. Like the altar, they are consecrated on their four horns. To be a priest is to have a holy body. (more…) Read more
In his study of The Passions of Christ in High-Medieval Thought: An Essay on Christological Development (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology) , Kevin Madigan concludes that on the issues of the human passions of Christ the scholastic theologians did not unpack what was implicit in patristic Christological. Rather, “high-medieval christological thought is often concerned to correct it, to bring what had slipped the channels back within the borders of orthodoxy. In no way is the early visible in inchoate or... Read more
A recent article in the widely read journal, Radiation Protection Dosimetry (150 [2012] 278-82) provides one more reason, as if one were needed, to grow a beard. The abstract reads: “A dosimetric technique has been employed to establish the amount of erythemal ultraviolet radiation (UVR) protection provided by facial hair considering the influence of solar zenith angle (SZA) and beard–moustache length. The facial hair reduced the exposure ratios (ERs) to approximately one-third of those to the sites with no hair.... Read more
After a series of exceedingly sensitive and profound meditations on Genesis 1-3, in which John Paul II highlights the contemporaneity and wisdom of Genesis, he suddenly turns into a nineteenth century liberal when he starts talking about sex in the Torah ( Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body , 270-4). He claims that the law “judges the woman differently and treats her with greater severity” than men, but provides no evidence. (more…) Read more
I muse on the religion of sports underlying modern and ancient Olympics at http://www.firstthings.com/ this morning. Read more
How did reciprocal economies become modern economies, dominated so thoroughly by the market? Hans van Wees ( Reciprocity in Ancient Greece , 48) says we don’t really know, and adds that “the introduction of money . . . turns out not to make as much difference as one might have thought.” He explains that money can be folded into a reciprocal economy, including competitive reciprocity: Money’s “exactly defined values make money rather unsuitable for giving where gifts are supposed to... Read more
In his contribution to Reciprocity in Ancient Greece (36-7), Hans van Wees asks whether a “reciprocal economy” is subject to the law of supply and demand. His answer is, Yes and No: “When initiating a reciprocal relationship, one might go where the goods one intends to give away are most scarce and where goods one hopes to receive are most abundant. Once the relation has been established, however, it is, in theory, no longer possible to calculate one’s material interests... Read more
Anthropologists claim that in “gift societies” objects exchanged never become the private property of the recipient. We know this even in our own society: We would never think to use a soup tureen from grandma to feed the cat. Gifts impose an obligation to honor the giver. Things bought do not bear these obligations. A soup tureen from Walmart can be used for the cat, or as a temporary home for a garter snake, or as a chamber pot. Nobody... Read more
Kelly Kapic ( God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity , 206-8) explains the various motivations of Pal’s Collection for the saints in Jerusalem: to relieve poverty, to unify the churchto share God’s grace together. There was also an eschatological motivation: “While it is nowhere stated as one of Paul’s explicit purposes for organizing the Collection, this project bears some striking similarities to various Old Testament prophecies. A time in the future was anticipated in the... Read more
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