Nietzsche again (Daybreak, 483): ” Weariness of mankind, —A: Know thou! Yes! But always in the human form! How? Am I always to watch the same comedy, act in the same comedy, without ever being able to see the things with other eyes than these? And yet there may bo innumerable species of beings whose organs are better fitted for knowledge than ours. What will mankind have come to discern at the end of all their discernment?—their organs! Which means,... Read more
In The Gay Science (39), Nietzsche comments on the importance of changes in taste in philosophy and science: “The alteration of the general taste is more important than the alteration of opinions; opinions, with all their proving, refuting, and intellectual masquerade, are merely symptoms of altered taste, and are certainly not what they are still so often claimed to be, the causes of the altered taste. How does the general taste alter? By the fact of individuals, the powerful and... Read more
In a 1995 article, Lance Janda argues that the US applied a policy of “total war” during the Civil War, and later used the same methods in the Indian wars: “if ‘total war. is defined as using ‘military force against the civilian population of the enemy,’ then the Civil War stands as a watershed in the American evolution of total war theory. The application of force against an enemy’s noncombatants and resources, the central tenet of total war, had been... Read more
In his essay on the hemorrhaging woman (Matthew 10) in The Social Setting of Jesus and the Gospels , Stuart Love points out that in Matthew Jesus addresses only two women with a gendered word, as “daughter” or “woman.” The first is the woman with the 12-year flow of blood, a clear symbol of impure, desperate, but believing Israel (“daughter”); the other is the Syro-Phoenician “woman” (Matthew 15:28). It’s a nice picture of Jesus’ ministry. He helps both women, but... Read more
Graham Twelftree ( In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism among Early Christians ) argues that there is not political dimension to the gospel story of Jesus and the Legion demoniac. Contrary to much contemporary scholarship, “legio” did not necessarily conjure up the image of Caesar’s army; the word could be used figuratively to mean simply a “great number” (as, Twelftree suggests, in Matthew 26:53). He also argues that the geographic setting, apparently Gentile, militates against the story as a parable... Read more
Jim Rogers of Texas A&M writes this rebuttal to my post summarizing Godbout’s book on gift. Jim quotes these sentences: “First, the dominant paradigm of human behavior is utilitarian. People act out of self-interest, and in that context the gift seems impossible, other-worldly, spookily spiritual.” Then he responds: “[1] It’s really very simple to generate gift-giving in (even) a narrowly utilitarian context: [a] Reciprocity, tit-for-tat, etc. [b] Or even without expectation of future payback — just stick a preference for... Read more
Song of Songs 2:4-5: He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am lovesick. We domesticate Jesus. He’s a baby in a manger, or a mild-mannered apostle of niceness. If spectacles had been invented in the first century, He’d be wearing them. That’s not how people who knew Him thought of Him. His own family thought Him mad and wanted to put... Read more
Protestants often find the idea of “deification” unsettling. When we hear “God became man, so that man might become God,” it sounds as if someone has erased the distinction between Creator and creature. But that pithy summary of the gospel comes from Athanasius, a trustworthy church father. More importantly, it summarizes the thrust of the gospel story. The Son took the form of a servant, so we could be remade in the likeness of God. (more…) Read more
What do worlds with no winter do, Not burned pure by visions of light, No clean slaughter-knife of cold Carving away concupiscence? (more…) Read more
Blumenfeld again, quoting Wayne Meeks: “The household, especially in Romans times, develops into a vast and complex system of inner and outer connections of allegiances and obligation, a ‘network of relationships, both internal – kinship, clientela , subordination – and external: ties of friendship and perhaps of occupation.’” Blumenfeld suggests that ultimately “the oikos effectively substitutes for the polis in meaning and extension.” So: Who was baptized when “households” were baptized? Read more
Leithart
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