Aristotle argued that certain kinds of things have “a principle of motion and of stationariness,” an “innate impulse to change.” Artificial things do not have such an impulse or principle, insofar as they are products of art, though “in so far as they happen to be composed of stone or of earth or of a mixture of the two, they do have such an impulse.” Such things that have such a principle or impulse toward motion are things that “have a... Read more
What does it mean to call God “God”? Gregory of Nyssa says (in his letter “On Not Three Gods”) that the word theos is derived from the word for “vision” ( theas ), so that to call God “God” is to call Him the “Beholder” ( theoron ). Insofar as Scripture says that each of the Three Persons “beholds,” thus the Scripture call each “Beholder” or “God”: “Now if any one admits that to behold and to discern are the... Read more
Augustine defends Abraham in his fathering a child with Hagar on several grounds ( Contra Faustum 22). His intention was to father a child, not to satisfy lust. Since evil is in the will, and Abraham acted with good will, his action was not adultery. Sarah shows the same virtue: She doesn’t cling to her husband with carnal desire but instead encourages him to father the child that she cannot give him. More interestingly, Augustine cites 1 Corinthians 7:4 (wife... Read more
The title “Holy One of Israel” is used a handful of times outside Isaiah, but regularly in that prophetic book. What does it mean? Isaiah 8:9-15 helps. While the phrase is not used in the passage, verse 13 exhorts Judah that “it is Yahweh of armies whom you should regard as holy.” The surrounding verses fill in the picture. Regarding Yahweh as holy means: He is the one who is feared, rather than the nations and their conspiracies (vv. 12-13).... Read more
Assmann again, on “the fantastic but probably not totally inaccurate statements made by Herodotus about the purity commandments observed by the Egyptians in their contact with the Greeks and probably with all foreigners.” Herodotus reports, “No Egyptian would touch a knife or cooking utensil that had been used by a Greek, nor eat the mean of an animal slaughtered with a Greek knife. Nor could any Egyptian ever bring himself to kiss a Greek on the mouth.” Assmann qualifies this... Read more
In his The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs , Jan Assmann notes the two purposes of rituals that mimicked “cosmic life and the cyclical recurrence of its natural phenomenon: day and night, summer and winter, the motions of the stars, the inundations of the Nile, sowing and reaping, decay and regeneration.” The assumption is that the sacred is timelessly unchanging, and that ritual is a prophylactic against change: “The purpose of this ritual... Read more
In his Thomas Aquinas: Theologian of the Christian Life (Great Theologians Series) , Nicholas Healy challenges Jean-Pierre Torrell’s claim that the Summa provides the only possible organization for theology. He challenges Torrell in the name of Thomas: “On my view, the ST has a rather different intent. Thomas’s Christology and doctrine of God are such that they rule out any perennial account of reality other than Scripture. Thomas’s is an anti-systematic system, so to speak, in that its principles systematically... Read more
All the fullness ( pleroma ) of God ( theotes ) dwells somatikos , “bodily,” in the incarnate Son. His body is the temple, filled with all the fullness of God (Colossians 2:9). Paul immediately follows this declaration of Christ’s full deity with this: “and in Him you have been made complete ( pleroo ).” “In” the Son are two realities: The fullness of the Father’s deity, and us. Since we’re in the Son with the Father’s fullness, we... Read more
“See to it that no one takes you captive [plunder you] through philosophy and empty deception,” Paul warns in Colossians 2:8. Who might try to capture through “philosophy”? Paul punningly hints at the identity of the spoilers by using the verb sylagogeo , which pretty obviously (as commentators often note) resonates with the verb synago and the noun synagoge . The synagogues have become spoilers, and the philosophy that Paul warns about is not in the first instance Greek or... Read more
Joseph Blenkinsopp ( Isaiah 1-39 (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries) ) suggests that the Hebrew canon arranges the prophetic books to correspond to the patriarchal history. After the four former prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) come four later prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve). The three “major” prophetic books, he suggests, numerically mimic the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, while The Twelve clearly links to the sons of Jacob. Perhaps we can modify this scheme a bit: If we take... Read more
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