OK, so the ubiquity of the Obamas at the news stand is an annoyance, but consider the alternative: Another round of Angelina v. Brad v. Jen v. the world, or Brittany’s latest meltdown, or whatever. The usual celebrities will be back soon enough, but for the moment let’s bask in the glow of a very happy, very attractive family looking back at us wherever we turn. And there’s a more serious and lasting benefit. The Obamas are black, and so... Read more
Galatians 4:4: When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son. Advent is about the beginning of a new time, a new history, a new calendar, a new creation. We know that it’s about a new time because it brings a new table. This has been God’s way from the beginning. Every new time brings a new table. At the beginning of time, Yahweh formed Adam from the dust, made him a living soul, placed him in a... Read more
Galatians 4: When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent for the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.... Read more
Christians often have a hard time with the incarnation. How can an exalted, sovereign God become flesh? This question starts from the wrong end. Instead of trying to learn about God and then trying to make sense of the incarnation, we should learn of God as the God of the incarnation. “The Word became flesh” – that reveals the God we worship. From the incarnation, we learn that our God is not a detached God, but a God infinitely attached.... Read more
Barth provides a flurry of quotations to demonstrate that Calvin’s Christology was perfectly catholic. Augustine wrote, “Quando in forma servi et mediator esset, infra angelos esse voluit in forma Dei supra angelos mansit; idem in inferioribus via vitae qui in superioribus vita.” It could also be called the extra-Thomasisticum: Christ came from heaven “non ita quod natura divina in coelo esse desierit; sed quia in infirmis novo modo esse coepit scil. secundum naturam assumptam.” Even, surprisingly, an extra-Lutheranisticum: “Neque enim... Read more
Barth ( CD 1.2) gives an powerful exposition of the crucial importance of anhypostasis and enhypostasis as Christological concepts. The first refers to the “impersonal” character of the human nature, and the second to the notion that the human nature exists only as the human nature of the Son. Barth says this: (more…) Read more
The Dalai Lama’s comments about sex, inevitably, grabbed the headlines. But I found something else he said at a Lagos press conference the other day more arresting: “Too much attachment towards your children, towards your partner,” is “one of the obstacle or hindrance of peace of mind.” It’s ancient wisdom. Augustine knew this wisdom, when he chided himself for weeping over a dead friend. It’s a wisdom acquainted with death. Death is going to take your children, and your partner,... Read more
Charles Barber ( Comfortably Numb ) writes, “In 1916, Dr. Henry Cotton of Trenton State Hospital, believing that germs from tooth decay led to insanity, removed patients’ teeth and other body parts, such as the bowels, which he thought might by the causes of their madness. In so doing, he killed almost half of his patients – more than one hundred people. Cotton’s practices were covered up by the hospital board and the leading figure in American psychiatry of the... Read more
Walker Percy wrote in Lost in the Cosmos (foreseeing the craze for antidepressants): “Assume that you are quite right [to be depressed]. You are depressed because you have every reason to be depressed. No member of the other two million species which inhabit the earth – and who are luckily exempt from depression – would fail to be depressed if it lived the life you lead. You live in a deranged age – more deranged than usual, because despite great... Read more
Two fatherless boys – Will, a pious member of the Plymouth Brethren, and Lee, the school’s bully and bad boy – find stability and hope when they become blood brothers and make an amateur Rambo spin-off. It’s a promising premise, but Son of Rambow doesn’t carry it off. (more…) Read more
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