Worship between beast and angel

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Catherine Pickstock’s contribution to the aforementioned volume on Paul explores the relation of worship ad the senses. She begins with the Pascalian observation that human beings are between beasts and angels, but rather than seeing this as a tragic failure of human nature, Pickstock rightly sees it as humanity’s glory: “Unlike angels, we combine in our persons every level of the created order from the inorganic, through the organic, through the animally psychic to the angelically intellectual.” Humanity’s status as... Read more

Hopeful politics

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

John Milbank ends his stimulating and confounding opening essay in Paul’s New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology with this: “any hopeful political project requires a sense that we inhabit a cosmos in which the realization of good and of justice might be at least a possibility. But that means, first of all, that we must consider the good to be more than a human illusion but rather in some sense an ultimate reality, ontologically subsisting before... Read more

How Wide Justification?

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

During the ETS discussion, Wright made a point of emphasizing that justification in Paul is one narrow slice of his theology and not the whole. Wright has been protesting for years against the expansion of “justification” to include everything that Paul says about salvation. At one level, he’s got a point. We should try to capture the precise contours of Paul’s usage and meaning. Justification is, as Wright continuously emphasizes (following the Reformed tradition!) that justification is the forensic dimension... Read more

Soteriology v. Ecclesiology

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

At ETS last week, the Toms – Schreiner and Wright – debated Paul and justification, along with Frank Thielman. The discussion was illuminating on many points, but on one central point it frustratingly kept missing the point. Schreiner accused Wright of a false dichotomy between soteriological and ecclesiological emphases in Paul, arguing for a both-and instead of an either-or. Amen! But Schreiner himself pretty much kept the dichotomy intact, simply tilting the balance over in favor of soteriology rather than... Read more

Sermon notes

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION Isaiah warns Judah not to trust man (2:22), and then gives the reason: Yahweh plans to remove all the powerful men from Jerusalem and Judah (3:1). THE TEXT “For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stock and the store, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water; the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder .... Read more

Eucharistic meditation

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Exodus 13:7-9: And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD. All through Exodus, Yahweh reminds Israel... Read more

Exhortation

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

In Genesis, firstborn sons are a brutish lot. Cain is the firstborn of firstborns, also the first fratricide. Ishmael mocks Isaac and is driven from Abraham’s camp. Esau would have been another Cain but for his brother Jacob’s wiliness. Jacob’s elder sons conspire to send Joseph into slavery and trick their father into believing he is dead. In the beginning, firstborn sons slaughter and sacrifice their brothers. Then Yahweh makes a new beginning. He delivers His firstborn son Israel by... Read more

Abel and Jacob

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Abel is righteous, but ends up dead at the hand of his brother. Jacob is perfect, and survives, in spite of Esau’s attempts to kill him. That progression foretells the progression of Israel’s exiles. In Egypt, they are “Abel,” exalted at first but eventually enslaved and slaughtered by the Pharaoh who does not know Joseph. In Babylon, they are Jacob, surviving and often flourishing in spite of the hostility of their neighbors. In Babylonian exile, Israel proves to be Israel,... Read more

Learning fidelity

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Why did Yahweh send Israel to exile? Appealing to 2 Kings 25 and Ezekiel 17, Jon Levenson suggests that “Subjugation to the Babylonian emperor was indeed punitive, but the purpose of the punishment was to train the vassal in the ways of covenant fidelity. . . . We see here a chastened royal theology” in which Davidic kingship does not involve Davidic superiority but rather “continued vassalage to the Babylonian overlord.” Given Israel’s history, “the best hope of the exiles... Read more

Angel to Yahweh

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

On Sinai, Moses intercedes for Israel, asking Yahweh to go with them. First, Yahweh promises to send His Angel ahead; finally, He promises to go before Israel Himself. The sequence of events from Exodus 19-40 is a double-covenant sequence. Israel agrees to do all that Yahweh commands, and Israel’s representatives eat and drink in Yahweh’s presence to seal the covenant (Exodus 23-24). Then Israel breaks covenant (Exodus 32), and Moses intercedes for a new covenant (Exodus 33-34), which Yahweh grands... Read more