The sixth word says, “Thou shalt not kill.” What does that prohibit? Does it prohibit killing of all kinds – including killing animals? Does it prohibit all killing of human beings? Does it prohibit war or capital punishment? Some translations use the word “murder” but that is too specific. Hebrew has a variety of words for killing. This one in the sixth word is used for the first time in the Bible.It is used frequently in Numbers 35, which lays... Read more
Some notes from an upcoming lecture on Richard III, drawn from Thomas Costain’s popualr history, Last Plantagenet, with additional details from Peter Saccio, Shakespeare’s English Kings. Shakespeare’s first tetralogy covers an especially tumultuous period in England’s history. Henry VI’s reign was split into two parts. His armies were defeated at Towton by Edward of York, son of Richard, in the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. Henry didn’t even show up to the battle; it was Palm Sunday and he spent the... Read more
Proverbs 22:2 says: “The rich and poor have a common bond, Yahweh is the maker of them all.” The text has an immediate contemporary application. Rich and poor aren’t different species, and they shouldn’t occupy different spaces. But, in the U.S. at least, we’re “coming apart,” as Charles Murray has written, with the wealthy segregating themselves physically, socially, educationally. Solomon would be appalled at the neglect of our derelict inner cities; he would be equally appalled at the isolation of... Read more
Here are some highlights of Marjorie Garber’s essay on Richard III in Shakespeare After All. 1) Garber suggests that Richard is the “first fully realized and psychologically conceived character” in Shakespeare’s plays. Richard’s character is fully realized because he is complex, protean, chameleon and Machiavellian (cf. 3 Henry VI 3.2.191-193). Throughout the play, he speaks with two voices, a public and a private, though ultimately these voices collapse together in Richard’s schizophrenic “monologue” on Bosworth Field. 2) Garber points out that... Read more
Thomas Brodie (Genesis As Dialogue) argues that “Genesis consists of twenty-six diptychs. Building on older insights that several Genesis texts occur in pairs and that Genesis is somehow binary or dialogical, this study makes a basic observation: The entire book is composed of diptychs—accounts which, like some paintings, consist of two parts or panels.” He gives several examples: “There are . . . two panels of creation (1:1–2:24), two of primordial sin (2:25–4:16), two genealogies (4:17–chap. 5), two parts to the flood... Read more
John Wilders’s The Lost Garden attempts to discern the unified concept of the human condition that lies behind Shakespeare’s English and Roman history plays. He finds the key in the Christian doctrine of sin: The “discrepancy between an ideal past and a painful present, between the hopeful intentions of Shakespeare’s heroes and their temporary, fragile achievements, is, I believe, a way of portraying in social and political terms the theological idea of a ‘fallen’ humanity. The myth of the Fall and... Read more
President Trump started calling his Attorney General Jeff Sessions “beleaguered” months ago. Now it’s actually true. Trump made it true. Republican leaders are plotting with Trump to replace Sessions after the mid-term elections. Jerry Falwell, Jr., has raised questions about the sincerity of Sessions’s commitment to Trump’s agenda. “He’s not on the President’s team,” Falwell says. Sessions, a long-time Alabama Senator, can’t depend on support back home any more. The Alabama Congressional delegation has stopped defending him. Trump and everyone... Read more
News reports of the recent revelations about the sex scandals in the Catholic church still claim that the crisis is about “pedophilia.” It’s not, as Philip Jenkins pointed out more than twenty years ago (Pedophiles and Priests). The alliterative “pedophile priests” is rhetorically punchy but, Jenkins argued, misleading: “Both the words in question are open to controversy because they place a special construction upon the behavior: taken as a whole, the term makes the problem more serious, more dangerous, and... Read more
My wife recently hung a small painting in the master bathroom. I bought the painting some years ago during a trip to Florida. In slightly impressionistic style, it depicts a rowboat tied to a dilapidated dock. Behind the boat the sea stretches out until it meets the graying sky. When I walk down the steps into my basement, a close-up photo of a tiger’s face greets me, taken by one of my adult children. The tiger keeps a close eye... Read more
“The First Amendment’s religious liberty provisions make no sense except on the supposition that God exists – that such a thing as religious truth exists and that the commands of true religious faith are real and superior to the commands of civil society.” This is the thesis of a 2013 article in the Pepperdine Law Review article by University of St. Thomas law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen. The existence of God is the only plausible foundation for a doctrine of religious... Read more
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