Bully Secularism

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:48 pm By Peter Leithart

Knight defines “secularity” as “the term for the determination of an elite to be autonomous and to make the polis the servant and expression of their autonomy. Some are then free of external intellectual authority, but they themselves comprise an undeclared intellectual authority over others. The state would then not be the project of the formation of plural acting and enabling; rather, it would be a closed economy and property of a clique. This redefinition of religion created a sphere... Read more

Reason and reasoning

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

Knight criticizes Frederick Beiser’s treatment of rationality in the early English Enlightenment because he “does not relate ‘reason’ to reasoning together, converse, public talk, and the skills of the development of public talk. Reason therefore for him never appears as faith doing what it must do to remain faithful – taking instruction, learning to think. Reason for Beiser appears to be precisely not tradition, inspiration, or Scripture. I have defined reason as what these three do together.” Read more

Atonement and Anthropology

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:46 pm By Peter Leithart

Knight writes at the end of a couple of chapters exploring Israel’s calling and the role of her cult in that calling: “I have presented my atonement theory as a general anthopological theory. I have developed a Christology that serves as a general anthropology. I am not setting out first an argument about Christology, which I then have to argue for again in terms of its wider application to anthropology and humanity. Christ is the criterion of humanity. I have... Read more

Worshiping Jesus

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

In making a structural point about Matthew’s references to “worship” of Jesus last week, I skimmed a bit too lightly over the details. Reader Ronald Man caught me, and offered these comments: There is no indication that the Magi (or Herod) recognized Jesus’ deity; rather it is clearly stated that they were coming to pay honor to a “King.” While Matthew certainly has the perspective of Christ’s deity, it seems to be reading back to consider worship being in view... Read more

Bio-Theology

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:48 pm By Peter Leithart

One of the intriguing threads in Knight is his rehabilitation of biology within theology – or, more specifically, the inclusion of “blood and seed, of sonship and messiah, of holiness and purity” within pneumatology. Contesting the common opposition of fictive and biological kinship, he says that “we should understand ‘fictive’ as a synonym for ‘adoptive,’ ‘elective.’ A household head can adopt a son, say by raising a freed slave to this status, and this elective kinship will be cemented by... Read more

Political hermeneutics

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

Knight again: “autonomous exegesis that does not stay in conversation with doctrine and philosophy cannot read Israel’s Scriptures as a political-cosmological world-claim. Without learning from doctrine and political philosophy, would-be exegetes of the Bible are unlikely to understand Israel’s cosmology as a public claim to commandeer, transform, and reemploy the world.” Again: “Can autonomous biblical studies represent anything but a claim to be able to divide the one work and creation of God into the separate and autonomous realms of... Read more

Israel and the nations

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

Knight has a lot of intriguing things to say about Israel and the nations, among them: “As Israel suffers the gentile onslaughts, Israel is half-persuaded that it has to compete with the Gentiles as an equal rather than as their lord; Israel has to fight them as thought it were one of them, rather than bear them as a parent does a child. Inasmuch as Israel succumbs to this temptation, Israel sins – Israel gentiles .” Read more

Atonement and Justification

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:46 pm By Peter Leithart

Knight again: “In reply to Sanders’s claim that Lutheran talk of representation and substitution is alien to Israelite sacrifice, I suggest that we should see Old Testament talk of atonement of place as a solution, not a problem. If we make a hard distinction between individuals and persons defined by relations, we can say that Israelites came to the temple as individuals and left as persons. They arrived alienated and left reconciled with God and his people. They came friendless... Read more

Adam, first or last

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

Douglas Knight’s The Eschatological Economy is one of the most stimulating works of theology in recent years. It is also one of the densest. The density doesn’t come from difficult prose or lack of clarity, but from the sheer profusion of insights and ideas, and from Knight’s determination to leave the reader to wrestle out things for himself rather than spell out every connection. One of the themes of this rich book is the way Western theology has given priority... Read more

Sermon notes

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

INTRODUCTION A delegation of Pharisees and scribes comes from Jerusalem to interrogate Jesus about His conformity to tradition. Jesus turns the tables and interrogates them about their conformity to God’s commandments. THE TEXT “Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, ‘ Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.’ . . . (Matthew 15:1-20). (more…) Read more