Jerome Neyrey ( Honor and Shame in the Gospel of Matthew ) argues that Jesus’ cry from Psalm 22 on the cross is not a cry of despair or anguish. It is a lament-complaint. Jesus went to the cross trusting that His Father will honor His faithfulness and obedience. The cry ” protests the apparent lack of honor shown to him on the part of his Patron.” The prayer is not impious; it is instead Jesus’ protest that He... Read more
Who would do such a thing? Kristin Hennessy, that’s who, in a delightful 2007 article in the Harvard Theological Review . She starts by noting that the current effort to rid theology of the corpse of de Regnon is nothing new. He’s been buried before, four times by Hennessy’s accounting, “one funeral for each volume”: “He was buried first by French scholars, who adopted his portrait of “Latin” and “Greek” theologies, only to invert, reverse, or ridicule it. A second... Read more
This is old news, borrowed mainly from James Jordan, but maybe worth putting up. Genesis 2-3, like Genesis 1, is divided into seven main sections. For the most part, the divisions are marked by the name Yahweh God and by descriptions of Yahweh God’s actions. Thus: 1. No shrub, etc; Yahweh God had not sent rain; Yahweh God formed man, vv 4-7 2. Yahweh God planted, v 8 3. Yahweh God caused plants to grow, v 9 4. Yahweh God... Read more
A friend, Paul Buckley, has this to add to my comments about the image of God: “This is coal to Newcastle, but: To your suggestion that what makes human making and speaking unique is their frequent gratuity, I’d add this (building on remarks from Sister Miriam Joseph’s The Trivium ), Human making and speaking are also uniquely progressive, developmental; they have an eschatology. Beavers have built dams for millennia, but there has been no development; beaver dams are what they... Read more
A former student, Stephen Long, writes the following in response to my post about the image of God and Adamic stoicheia: “You list two aspects of the image of God in Gen 1 — Making and Speaking. Perhaps you see it as implicit to Speaking, but might it be worth bringing out separately that God is also an Evaluator (“And God saw that it was good”) — seven-fold-ly so (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31)? “The trinity formed by... Read more
Matthew’s account of the cry of dereliction follows a chiastic structure: A. Jesus cries Psalm 22, 27:46 B. He falls for Elijah, 27:47 C. Sponge soaked in wine, drink; 27:48 B’. See whether Elijah comes, 27:49 A’. Cried again and gave Spirit, 27:50 There are a number of interesting connections here. (more…) Read more
What does it mean for man to be in God’s image? It means that on a creaturely level, human beings do what God does and have capacities that imitate God’s infinite capacities. Can we unpack that? The best way, I submit, is (initially) to stay within the narrative of Genesis 1. If man images God, we should ask what God does. So, what does God do? First thing, He creates. If man is image, it is because we too create.... Read more
Was Adam created Son or Servant? Is the primary relationship of Yahweh to Adam Lord or Father? Recognizing that Adam was placed in a stoicheic situation from his creation cuts through the opposition. Adam is created a son. That’s what it means to be in the image and likeness of God. He is a created counterpart to the Image. Yet, in the stoicheic conditions of the garden, he was a minor son who did not differ from a slave though... Read more
Umberto Eco ( On Literature ) explores the phenomenon of the “quality best seller,” the book that gains a wide readership for compelling story or characters, yet at the same time employs sophisticated literary devices that entertain and delight more serious readers. This is nothing new, Eco thinks. Dante and Shakespeare were both “quality best selling” authors. Eco generalizes: texts “tend to construct two Model Readers” rather than simple one. “It addresses in the first place a Model Reader of... Read more
Voices cry out with fair regularity against the vapidness of contemporary public discourse. Lots of voices. Enough for a quorum, if not a consensus. Less consensus is evident when those voices attempt to explain the causes of this situation. Bad education? Video games? TV? Talk Radio? Steven D. Smith ( The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse ) offers a deeper explanation: Public discourse is shallow by design: Citing Rawls, he says, “It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the very... Read more
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