Gibbon captures the pervasive character of idolatry in Roman society and culture in a passage from the Decline and Fall : “it was the first but arduous duty of a Christian to preserve himself pure and undefiled by the practice of idolatry. The religion of the nations was not merely a speculative doctrine professed in the schools or preached in the temples. The innumerable deities and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with every circumstance of business or pleasure, of... Read more
A 2007 article from Church History examines the role of fasting in French Reformed piety, and concludes with this: “Why did the fast acquire this remarkable status and power in the Reformed world, particularly in France? The response, in part, relates to Reformed Protestants’ deep reverence for Scripture and its authority. They were profoundly inspired by the Hebrew Bible. The fast was a concrete liturgical link with ancient patriarchal predecessors who were self-consciously God’s ‘chosen.’ Reformed Christians possessed, of course,... Read more
In his recent book Travelling Heroes, Robin Lane Fox examines Greek travel in the eighth century BC, focusing on the Euobean Greeks who traded and settled throughout the Mediterranean. Fox argues, in the summary of Edith Hall, the TLS reviwer , that “these electrying Euobeans can explain much of the contents of archaic Greek literature. It was, he argues, their distinctively Greek experiences of and reactions to distance places that shaped Greek myth, rather than their Greek intercultural repsonses to... Read more
Some reflections in spired by a paper on the biblical theology of the city by a student, Lisa Beyeler. 1) Genesis 1-11 is often treated as a “prologue” to Israel’s history, but that tends to detach it as “natural history” as opposed to “redemptive history.” It is a preparation for the history of Israel, but not because it is detached from Israel’s history. Rather, Genesis 1-11 sets up the problems that Israel is designed to solve. Abram is called right... Read more
The following is a Christological speculation, not a Christological affirmation. My student, Brad Littlejohn, has suggested, based on a study of the theology of “life” in the gospel, that the divine-human relation in Christ changes after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The humanity participates in God’s life from the moment of incarnation, but that participation becomes fuller in the resurrection. (more…) Read more
John Gray begins his Enlightenment’s Wake with a breathtaking dismissal of neo-liberal political philosophy (the chapter is “Against the new liberalism”). I found it thrilling, and not just because I have a weakness for titles that begin with “Against.” A few highlights: “It is arguable that the traditional of liberal theorizing [Rawls’s work] inagurated has done little more than articulate the prejudices of an Anglo-American academic class that lacks any understanding of political life in our age – an age... Read more
In the introduction to his 2005 book, Cities of God , Augustine Thompson complains that medievalists have paid too little attention to the religious lives of orthodox laymen: “Heretics, popes, theologians, Franciscans, and saints. Where is everyone else?” His book studies the communes of medieval Italian cities partly to redress this imbalance, but it is also examines the religious character of those communes. This too is frequently denied or downplayed in the literature: (more…) Read more
Reacting to my earlier post on the week of John 1-2, John Barach offers a (needed) lesson in counting: It seems to me that the wedding at Cana has to be taken as the eighth day for two reasons. First, the parallels with the seven days of creation make it the eighth: DAY 1: The Light of the World (1:1-18) DAY 2: The Baptism of John (1:19-28) DAY 3: Jesus’ Baptism (1:29-34): dry land emerges from water, “the next day.”... Read more
A friend and former student, Aaron Cummings. offers more thoughts on the lot-scapegoat connection: 1) Saul cast lots for Jonathan when we he sinned. Saul sinfully saw Jonathan as a new Achan, a man whose sin affected the congregation. Saul like Joshua uses lots to root out the sin. 2) The Apostles cast lots for Matthias, who became an apostolic bondservant, a sort of scapegoat, in that he bore the shame of Christ in his ministry, always carrying about the... Read more
Cities dominated by commerce are offensive to many today, but historically a city of commerce is a city of peace, a city that has escaped the domination of military elites and interest. Weber wrote: “While in Antiquity the hoplite army and its training and military interests moved to the center of the city organization, most civic privileges in the Middle Ages began with the reduction of civic military service to garrison duty. Economically, the urbanites were increasingly concerned with peaceful... Read more
Leithart
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