Bonhoeffer ( Ethics ) sees conscience as a manifestation of the “disunited” man after the fall. Instead of finding knowledge in union with God, conscience draws us to ourselves. We want to know the truth and the good by reference to ourselves as the origin. Conscience “derives the relation to God and to men from the relation of man to himself. Conscience pretends to be the voice of God and the standard for the relation to other men.” From this... Read more
Sacrifices are a “memorial of sin” (Hebrews 10:3). Every morning and evening, Israel’s sins were memorialized before Yahweh, even as they were atoned for. Satan accuses “day and night” (Revelation 12:10). He is the accuser, and at every morning and evening sacrifice, he has fresh grounds of accusation. Satan cannot be cast from heaven until the memorials cease. Memorials cannot cease until there is a sacrifice that actually removes sin. Christus Victor is not an “addition” to a “sacrificial” theory... Read more
Encouragingly, the Mercersberg revival continues apace. Phillip Ross has recently released a new edition of Nevin’s classic on Eucharistic theology, The True Mystery of The Mystical Presence . Ross has updated Nevin’s language and clarified his obscurities, trying to make Nevin speak in a direct way to contemporary Christians. In addition this edition includes several appendixes, an essay on Calvin’s theology of the Eucharist, Calvin’s “little treatise” on the Supper, and an essay by Ross on “the eight senses of... Read more
Isaiah 24:1-6 has an intricate structure, much of it with a numerological thrust. In the opening verse, Yahweh devastates the earth in a fourfold act – emptying ( baqaq ), laying it waste ( balaq ), twisting (’ avah ) its face, and scattering ( putz ) its inhabitants. The four verbs reinforce the totality of the devastation, since it stretches to the four corners.This fourfold structure is overlaid by a heptamerous structure: Yahweh (1) empties (2) earth, (3) lays-waste,... Read more
In a 1995 piece in Critical Inquiry , Susan Fraiman defends Austen from the charges directed at her in Edward Said’s famous study of Austen and imperialism. Fraiman doesn’t think Said is a very careful reader: His “rendering of Austen is . . . enabled, I would argue, by Said’s highly selective materialization of her. . . . whereas in subsequent sections Aida is lovingly embedded within Verdi’s corpus and Kim within Kipling’s, and notwithstanding Said’s claim that Mansfield Park... Read more
Deepak Lal again, criticizing the leftist moralism of the NGOs and the rightwing moralism of neoconservatives: “The attempt to create an international moral order, either by the transnational route advocated by the global salvationists [NGOs] or by the exercise of U.S. imperial power as advocated by the ethical imperialists, is a route to global disorder. Just when some of the great Eurasian civilizations have come to realize that changing their material beliefs and modernizing througyh globalization does not entail changing... Read more
Social Gospeller Josiah Strong argued for a vigorous US foreign policy, but insisted it had to be carried out on a proper basis. He rejects Machiavelli whose disciples “tell us that the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount have nothing to do with politics, either national or international.” Then this pre-Nieburhian swipe against Niebuhr: “As if the conscience of the private citizen must be supreme thought it lead him to the stake, while that of the state official... Read more
Deepak Lal ( In Praise of Empires: Globalization and Order ) argues that after WW II, the US missed the opportunity to adopt unilateral free trade policies, as Britain did in the 19th century. “Rather than follow the correct British policy of adopting unilateral free trade and then allowing its hegemony to spread the norm, the United States chose the extremely acrimonious route of multilateral and more recently bilateral negotiations to reduce trade barriers. This is due to the fact... Read more
Like all Trinitarian theologians, Jenson is finally ecstatic: “Our enjoyment of God is that we are taken into the triune singing. Perhaps we may say that we are allowed to double the parts. And here too we must insist on concreteness. That the proclamation and prayer of the church regularly bursts into beauty, indeed seems to insist on music and choreography and setting, is not an adventitious hankering to decorate. A congregation singing a hymn of praise to the Father... Read more
In the first volume of his Systematic Theology , Jenson notes that the reason why the church has been “lured” by impassibility is the conviction, which Jenson emphatically affirms” that God is “not subjected to created time’s contingencies” and that no “aspect of history could be outside the Lord’s control.” The issue for Jenson is not whether this is true. He affirms it. The question is ” How does God transcend time’s contingencies?” and Jenson’s answer, as always, is to... Read more
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