Economic and Ontological

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm By Peter Leithart

Catherine LaCugna says that developments in Christology provide “an analogy for the project” of her book on the Trinity. It’s a bad analogy from the getgo. LaCugna notes that modern Christology has collapsed the distinction of Person and Work, ontology and function, or, what we might call the “ontological” and the “economic.” Christology and soteriology are inseparable, and there is no “real distinction between being and function.” Whatever we might say about that development, it can hardly provide a model... Read more

Sermon notes

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:02 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION “Rejoice in the Lord always,” Paul says (Philippians 4:4). How? Scripture teaches that the Lord’s presence is our joy. We rejoice because the Lord has come, and is coming. THE TEXTS “I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord . . . .” (Zephaniah 3:12-20); “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4-20); “And when John had heard in prison about the works... Read more

Plowed in love

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:04 am By Peter Leithart

“He will be quiet in His love,” Zephaniah appears to say about Yahweh and Israel (NASB). Quiet? He’s just been exalting and shouting. Now He’s quiet? That’s a possible translation, but the verb translated as “be quiet” or “rest” also means “plow.” Plowed in love? In Judges 14:18, Samson uses the word as a sexual image; strictly, the woman is the “heifer” that Samson uses to plow. But the image might also suggest that the woman is the ground that... Read more

Jesus and justification

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:45 pm By Peter Leithart

Jesus doesn’t talk much about justification, and when He does He doesn’t sound very Pauline (Matthew 12:37). The publican is justified – apparently not by his faith but by his humility (Luke 18:14). So, Jesus doesn’t teach justification by faith? Wrong. “Yahweh has taken away judgments against you, He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, Yahweh, is in your midst; you will fear disaster no more.” Thus Zephaniah (3:15). That means: (more…) Read more

Eucharistic meditation

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:37 pm By Peter Leithart

1 Corinthians 10:16-17: Is not this cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Many Christians over the centuries have thought of the Lord’s Supper as a kind of continuing or second incarnation. First the Son gets embodied in flesh, but now that He’s gone away He gets embodied in another material. Nowadays, He dwells among us not in a human... Read more

Baptismal meditation

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:47 pm By Peter Leithart

Luke 3:3: And John came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Israel was baptized twice. All those who came out of Egypt were baptized into Moses in the Red Sea and in the cloud. They ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink, because they drank from the Rock that followed them, the Rock that was Christ. But they rebelled and grumbled and God was not well-pleased. That baptism into... Read more

Exhortation

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:40 pm By Peter Leithart

Advent is about the coming of the Son, but we shouldn’t forget that Advent is a thoroughly Trinitarian event. The Son doesn’t sneak away from heaven when the Father’s not looking; rather, out of His love for the world the Father sends the Son to reveal that love, and gives and glorifies the Son so that He can give everything to the Son who glorifies Him. Advent, though, is equally about the Spirit. According to Luke, the Son takes Mary’s... Read more

What Mad Pursuit, 2

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:48 pm By Peter Leithart

Steven Hayward ( Weekly Standard ) has a balanced and thorough analysis of the climate science emails made public a few weeks ago. Hayward is not a knee-jerk global warming skeptic. He begins the final paragraph of his piece with “Climate change is a genuine phenomenon, and there is a nontrivial risk of major consequences in the future.” And he, quite rightly, acknowledges that “The emails do not in and of themselves reveal that catastrophic climate change scenarios are a... Read more

Creatio ad nihilum?

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:51 pm By Peter Leithart

Creatures by definition depend on something outside themselves to remain in existence. Does this then mean that they are in danger of slipping into non-existence? Do they, as one scholar suggests, retain “a potency for nonbeing” and do they “risk passing out of existence, if separated from the source of its being”? The qualifying conditional phrase tells it all: Can any creature be separated from the source of being? Does God, once creating, give up on it? And, does the... Read more

Word and thing

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:48 pm By Peter Leithart

TF Torrance ends a series of articles on the hermeneutics of Athanasius by returning to a theme developed throughout the series: “Christian doctrines are not to be established or to be defended simply by appealing to Biblical texts, but by listening to the things they signify by and reflecting on the acts of God they attest and allowing our thought and statements to be objectively determined by them.” And, “If we transfer our interest from the realities signified to the... Read more