Power and gift seem to be opposed to each other, but Milbank argues that true rule is always donative, always a gift of ruling. This is partly a matter of power-sharing, and obvious once the point is made: A ruler who does not share rule is, by definition, a tyrant; his rule is not rule by oppression. Right rule is therefore, necessarily, a gift of rule. Read more
The miracle at Cana takes place on the seventh day of John’s gospel. It’s a wedding, and it’s “Sabbath.” If we assume that the fall of Adam took place on the first Sabbath, then the Johannine Sabbath provides some neat parallels and reversals. In particular, this parallel may illuminate Mary’s role: She urges Jesus to provide wine, but Jesus puts her off with “My hour is not yet come.” Jesus is true Adam who waits until the right time to... Read more
John’s talk of the “only-begotten” has been taken as a reference to an “eternal begetting” of the Son. I agree. But the specific “begetting” spoken of in the Old Testament is the begetting of the “Son,” the Davidic king (Psalm 2:7 with 2 Samuel 7:14 and Hebrews 1), which occurs at the resurrection (Acts 13:33). That is, “begotten Son” is another way of saying “Risen Son” or even “Exalted King.” Perhaps this is an immanent/economic thing: The eternal begetting of... Read more
Is God limited by His nature? If we say No, we’re radical nominalists and voluntarists; God might turn ugly at a whim. If we way Yes, we have the uncomfortable feeling that we’ve constrained God. The problem is in that word “limit.” Better to avoid it altogether. It’s not as if God is stuck in a box labeled “divine nature.” God is His nature, and all He does expresses that perfect nature. His nature is not a limit; rather, acting... Read more
INTRODUCTION Advent has traditionally been a period of fasting in preparation for the feast of Easter, though the abstinence of Advent has usually been much less rigorous than the fast of Lent. Are regular periods of fasting appropriate in the new covenant? THE TEXT “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a... Read more
1 Corinthians 10:16-17: Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a communion in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf which we break a communion in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf. We make a lot of the Lord’s Supper around here. We say that it’s the climax of our worship, the center of the life of the church,... Read more
Christmas is all about Jesus. The angels announce Jesus’ birth, shepherds and wise men come to see Jesus, Herod wants to kill Jesus. We occasionally think of the Father who sent the Son, but we keep returning to the Son made flesh in Bethlehem’s manger. Meanwhile, as always, the Spirit takes a back seat. Yet, Christmas is a thoroughly Trinitarian event, and the Spirit is as crucial here as He is everywhere else. Advent celebrates the coming of the Son,... Read more
In the course of a review of Timothy Ryback’s recent book on Hitler’s library, Anthony Grafton comments on the connection between critique and occultism in early twentieth-century thought: “it is wrong to dismissed the esoteric strains in German thought in the early decades of the twentieth century simply because they now seem laughable. In a time when all values – from the objective ones of natural science to the traditional ones of the established churches – came into question, many... Read more
Christopher Caldwell ends an intriguing article on William Bagehot ( Weekly Standard , 12/22) with this: “To be blunt, credit is successfully reestablished when financial elites say, ‘When.’ Credit is close to a synonym for the mood of the ruling class. To say an economy is based on credit is to say it is based on animal mysteries. Glamour, prestige, elan, sprezzatura, cutting a figure . . . that is what the economy is made of. It is a rather... Read more
Mike Bull from Australia sent the following, which I reproduce with his permission: “We don’t know how many wise men travelled from the east, but perhaps we can make a guess via God’s deliberate typology. “We do know there were three gifts. With Christ as the human Ark of the Covenant (most holy place), these three gifts correspond to the furniture in the “firmament.” As the Ark contained Word, Sacrament and Government (Hebrews 9:4), the response of these Babylonian elders... Read more
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