Gregory of Nyssa ( Against Eunomius 3.3) recognizes that the crux (!) of the debate between Arian and orthodox is the cross: “we say that the God who was manifested through the cross must be honored in the same way as the Father is honored while they consider the Passion as an obstacle to glorifying the only-begotten God equally with the God who begot him . . . . For it is obvious that the reason why he places the... Read more
Berry again, waxing prophetic, and thanks again to Ken Myers. “In denying the holiness of the body and of the so-called physical reality of the world—and in denying support to the good economy, the good work, by which alone the Creation can receive due honor—modern Christianity generally has cut itself off from both nature and culture. It has no serious or competent interest in biology or ecology. And it is equally uninterested in the arts by which humankind connects itself... Read more
Thanks to Ken Myers for passing on the following quotes from Wendell Berry’s essay “The Specialization of Poetry”: “I do not believe that people who have experienced chaos are apt to praise or advocate any degree or variety of it . . . . Formlessness is, after all, neither civilized nor natural. It is a peculiarly human evil, without analogue in nature, caused by the failures of civilization: inattention, irresponsibility, carelessness, ignorance of consequence. It is the result of... Read more
Ramachandra notes a couple of limitations in recent post-colonial discussion. One is the blindness to the influence of Christianity. Christianity is “naively identified with Europe and the United states,” and thus missionaries, their achievements, and their disciples, are considered “mere pawns in the hands of colonial administrators.” Ramachandra notes the irony: This is precisely the “Orientalist stance in reverse, the division of the world into Christian West and exotic east. More fundamentally, postcolonial theory is stuck between aligning “with humanist... Read more
In God and the Crisis of Freedom , Richard Bauckham offers this superb example of freedom and self-creation: “If I make myself, for example, into a brilliant musician, then certainly I am exercising a real freedom to make all the choices, some no doubt very hard, that lead to this. But this freedom is entirely dependent, not only immediately and obviously, on being born with musical talent and having the opportunities to develop it (which have to be available even... Read more
In his The Just War Revisited (Current Issues in Theology) , Oliver O’Donovan distinguishes between collateral damage and indiscrimination (a violation of just war criteria) by pointing to the intention. How can intention be determined? He offers this analysis: “One can test the intention to harm non-combatants by putting a simple hypothetical question: if it were to chance that by some unexpected intervention of Providence the predicted harm to non-combatants did not ensue, would the point of the attack have... Read more
In one of his many provocative asides during his lectures on Revelation, James Jordan suggests that the sevenfold praise of the Lamb (5:12) matches the sevenfold description of Jesus in the first vision (1:14-16). Jordan doesn’t elaborate, so let’s see how this works out. As usual, some are more obvious than others. We could also link this sequence with the days of creation and the feasts of Israel. 1. Power = head and hair like white wool. That connection makes... Read more
Thomas (ST II-II, 2, 3) asks whether faith is necessary for salvation or the “perfection” of human nature. Citing Hebrews 11:6, he concludes, of course, that faith is necessary, and in the process argues that rational creatures reach perfection not only “in what belongs to it in respect of its nature, but also in that which it acquires through a supernatural participation in Divine goodness.” This seems a very un-de-Lubacian Thomas. But I think the argument mostly confirms de Lubac.... Read more
That hint of a slightly canceled question mark at the end of sentences ? You know what I mean ? Seems pretty innocuous ? Milbank doesn’t think so ( The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology ): “People who fondly imagine themselves the subjects of their ‘own’ choices entirely will, in reality, be the most manipulated subjects, and the most incapable of being influenced by goodness and beauty. This is why, in the affluent Anglo-Saxon West today, there is... Read more
In The Ways of Judgment: The Bampton Lectures, 2003 , Oliver O’Donovan suggests that the notion of world government is conceptually contradictory: “World government is an abstract idea: the government of a people with no internal relations of mutual recognition. A people with no relations has no identity, and the government of those with no identity has no legitimacy. Whatever their claims to universality, in practice all empires need strong boundaries, which define their identity by excluding peoples who live... Read more
Leithart
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