My friend and former student Stephen Long sends along this quotation from Augustine and brief analysis that follows. The excerpt is from Augustine’s Sermon 187, a Christmas sermon. The portion in quotation marks is from Augustine, the paragraph at the end from Stephen. “When he took human limbs to himself, after all, he did not abandon his divine works; nor did he stop reaching mightily from end to end, and disposing all things sweetly. When he clothed himself with the... Read more
In place of the arborescent systems of modernity, Deleuze and Guattari rhizomic models. Herman Rapaport explains ( The Literary Theory Toolkit: A Compendium of Concepts and Methods ): “Traditionally, organic metaphors were used to suggest the coherence and closure of forms, since life forms are capable of being looked at as autonomous systems that have a steady state and are self-sufficient, given an environment that supports their needs in terms of light, temperature, food, and shelter.” Deleuze and Guattari object... Read more
“Cosmetic” comes from the Greek kosmos , which typically means “world,” and from techne , which means “art” or even “technique.” The etymology throws lines in several directions. A kosmos is an adorned, arranged, and beautified world. In the Genesis account, Yahweh displays His artistic skill in adorning the world as His future bride, until the bride descends from heaven “kosmeticized” for her husband (Revelation 21:2). Cosmetics make women into worlds, like the bride of the Song of Songs, in... Read more
When the Philistines capture the mighty Samson, he seems tame enough. They mock and abuse him until the Spirit of Yah returns and Samson pulls down the house. When the Philistines learn that the ark of God is in the Israelite camp, they’re terrified that “mighty gods” contend with them. But when the capture the ark, it seems pretty tame too. Then Dagon pays homage to Yahweh’s throne, and plagues and deadly confusion follow the humbled ark goes. No wonder... Read more
Herman Rapaport’s The Literary Theory Toolkit: A Compendium of Concepts and Methods is an impressive achievement. In less than 300 pages, he gives deft and up-to-the minute summaries of literary theories, describes available literary tools for analyzing narrative, poetry, drama, and for analyzing the systematic and social dimensions of texts. A lot here, explained in unadorned prose, with lots of examples. Early on, Rapaport discusses the hermeneutical circle, and suggests that various theorists (Derrida, Deleuze, Lacan, Zizek) have found ways... Read more
Bavinck affirms that evil is a privatio boni , but is not satisfied to leave it there: “Sin is a no-thing , can only be a privation or corruption of the good. Sin is a defect, a deprivation, an absence of the good, or a weakness, imbalance, just as blindness is a deprivation of sight. The idea of sin as privation, however, is incomplete; sin is also an active, corrupting, destructive power. Sin is a privation of the moral perfection... Read more
Bavinck notes the traditional division of providence into preservation, concurrence, and governance, but then adds: “These do not divide the work of providence into materially and temporally distinct and successive parts for they are always integrally connected. From the very beginning, preservation is also government, and government concurrence, and concurrence is preservation. Preservation tells us that nothing exists, not only no substance, but also no power, no activity, no idea, unless it exists totally from, through, and to God. ‘Concurrence’... Read more
Donald Polaski ( Authorizing an End: The Isaiah Apocalypse and Intertextuality (Biblical Interpretation Series) ) links the feast of Isaiah 25 with the imperial feasts of the Babylonian kings of Daniel and Ahasuerus in Esther. He concludes that Isaiah implicitly endorses empire: “The feast YHWH throws in Isaiah 25 parallels those feasts thrown by other emperors. This similar function would tend to put a stamp of approval on that form of government as being favored by YHWH. ‘On that day’... Read more
While the Lord is setting out a grand feast on the mountaintop, Moab is down below, trampled in the offal of the sacrifices (Isaiah 25:10). It’s fitting that Moab is left wallowing in the madmenah , since there is a Moabite town known as Madmen (Jeremiah 48:2). The simile reminds me of the race scene in the Iliad where little Ajax slips in the shit of a sacrificial bull while Odysseus whips past him to the finish line. Moab is... Read more
Isaiah 25 has a number of connections with the events of the exodus and the Sinai covenant. The Psalm that opens the chapter resonates with the Song of Moses in Exodus 15, as does the song of salvation in verse 9. The feast on the mountain is a sacrificial feast on Mount Zion, but also resembles the covenant-making feast of Exodus 24, when Aaron and his sons joined the elders halfway up the mountain to eat and drink (cf. “elders”... Read more
Leithart
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