Paul’s teaching concerning the relation of the Spirit to law is often understood this way: The law sets out God’s demands for His people; we can’t keep those demands; the Spirit enables us to conform to the law. That’s one way of putting it. It is the way that Jeremiah and Ezekiel put it – new hearts enable Israel to obey the Torah. But that is not Paul’s characteristic way of putting it. More often, Paul says that we “keep... Read more
A version of my Ash Wednesday homily is posted today on the First Things web site (firstthings.com). Read more
Alexander Schmemann notes in his Introduction to Liturgical Theology that “Liturgical historians have taken insufficient notice of the fact that the persecutions, conflicts, sufferings and isolation of Christians are almost completely unmentioned in the prayers and liturgical texts of early Christianity. The worship of the early Church was not merely more ‘majestic’ and triumphal than later Byzantine worship, it was in some sense even broader in its ‘scope’ and inspiration. It resounds with cosmic thanksgiving and embraces in its vision... Read more
Morna Hooker’s classic article “Adam in Romans 1” gets a basic point right: Adam is a model of fall into idolatry that Paul outlines. She also gets some things wrong. First, strangely, though she acknowledges the link between Romans 1 and Psalm 106, she never develops the point by noting that the fall Paul describes is also the fall of Israel (at Sinai, vv. 19-20 ). This doesn’t nullify an Adamic reference; Israel is the new Adamic people. But it... Read more
Matt Labash has a hilarious send-up of Facebook (on which I am not) in the latest issue of the Weekly Standard . It’s a massive target: “Facebook had just added its 150-millionth member and since last August is signing up 374,000 people each day. It has achieved absolute critical mass, thus compounding its utility and effectiveness. Not joining now is an affectation in itself, like refusing to own a cellphone or rejecting the social lubricant of antiperspirant.” Middle-aged folks are... Read more
In a superb 2003 article in JETS Stephen Guthrie examines the role of singing in worship, working out some stirring pneumatological reflections on Paul’s exhortation to sing Psalms in Ephesians 5. He notes that Paul’s exhortation occurs in the context of a contrast of the children of light and the children of darkness. The children of light are those who have been filled with the Spirit, and one of the central things the Spirit does is to make them “singing... Read more
In an essay on the “authority of the church in temporal matters,” de Lubac writes, “Since the supernatural is not separated from nature, and the spiritual is always mixed wtih the temporal, the Chuch has eminent authority – always in proportion to the spiritual element present – over everything, without having to step out of her role. If this is not true, then we might as well admit that the Church has no authority over anything, that she can speak... Read more
A thought from a student exam: In Mark’s gospel, as soon as the veil of the temple is torn, the centurion confesses Jesus as Son of God. It’s a crucial scene because it’s the first time any human recognizes Jesus as Son. And the sequence of veil and confession is crucial. The temple existed to keep people away from the presence of Yahweh. Jews were called to be nearer, and Gentiles further. If the temple is open, it doesn’t fulfill... Read more
Judith Evans Grubbs notes that the Antonine Roman emperors pursued a pro-family agenda, employing pro-family numismatic symbols for that purpose: In addition to the use of the goddess Pudicitia, “also celebrated on Antonine coins is the concordia (sense of harmony, agreement) shared by the emperor and his wife, symbolized by the dextrarum iunctio (joining of hands) of the imperial couple. Previously employed to represent political agreement between male members of the ruling family, from the second century on the dextrarum... Read more
Danielle Allen has a fascinating review of Josiah Ober’s Democracy and Knowledge in the TNR (3/18). Allen notes that eighteenth century thinkers, including the American founders, considered Athenian democracy a failure, and concluded that “pure democracy devolved into either anarchy or rule by a corrupt managerial elite.” Ober’s volume, the capstone of a trilogy on Athenian democracy, argues otherwise, and asks why made Athens a success. One question Allen raises is why the American Founders seem to have gotten Athens... Read more
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