In the second edition of African Religions and Philosophy (1989), John Mbiti says that Africans generally lack a concept of the future. Their future tenses reach only a short time into the past, and one people leave the present they are absorbed into an atemporal afterlife. Mbiti notes as well that few African cultures have numerical time-keeping or numerical calendars. Their days are organized not by hours but by events or activities – sunrise, time for milking, time for rest... Read more
E.B. Tylor was the first to characterize African religions as “animist,” remarking that “one great element of religion, that moral element which among the higher nations forms its most vital part, is indeed little represented in the religion of the lower races.” Others characterized the”lower religions” as “fetishist” because of their concentration on sacred objects. Thus radical Protestant anti-sacramentalism became one of the foundation assumptions of cultural anthropology: The higher the religion, the more overtly and thoroughly moral it is.... Read more
Tatian’s Oration to the Greeks is an attempt to vindicate the wisdom of Moses against Greek snobbery toward the barbarians. Aime Puech points out that chronology was central to Tatian’s argument: “In order to rehabilitate the Barbarians it was important to prove that they had contributed their share, indeed the chief share, to the progress of humanity; but it was even more important to establish that the one authentic religion justified its claims, not only by its obvious truth but... Read more
Cristina Conti of th Salvation Army Seminary in Buenos Aires offers an interesting chiasm of James (Global Bible Commentary, Abingdon Press). Here is an abbreviated form of the chiasm: A. Joy in trial, 1:2-8 B. Rich fade, 1:9-11 C. Lustfulness, 1:12-15 D. Perfect Gift, 1:16-25 (more…) Read more
Eric Enlow writes, in response to my post on Gary Gilmore: “The Law actually can and has done quite a bit about the Gilmore situation to address responsibility that flows to the family as a whole. For example, early Germanic law imposed criminal liability on families not individuals. Thus, each clan was held responsible for any criminal action by its members, i.e. forced to pay the criminal fine for the act and/or to hand over the member for death depending... Read more
INTRODUCTION The split within Israel continues to widen. Chapter 12 ended with Jesus teaching about His re-constituted family (12:46-50), and the end of chapter 13 reiterates that a prophet is without honor in His home town (13:53-58). Jesus appears in “their synagogue” for the last time in 13:53-58. With Israel growing dull of hearing, Jesus begins teaching in parables (13:15). THE TEXT “On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes... Read more
Matthew 12:42: The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. As I mentioned in the sermon, 1 Kings illustrates the international reach of Solomon’s kingdom by recording the visit of the Queen of Sheba. She came with tribute and gifts, and also with a good deal of... Read more
Matthew 12:45: the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Jesus spends most of the debate in our sermon text talking about the generation of Israel that saw His coming, witnessed the powerful signs He performed, heard the good news, and yet failed to repent. When he talks about the last state of the man being worse than the first, He is talking in the first instance about “this generation,” as He goes on to say in... Read more
In our sermon text, Jesus repeatedly evaluates “this generation.” “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign,” He says in response to the scribes and Pharisees. The men of Nineveh will rise in judgment against this generation, along with the Queen of the South, the Queen of Sheba, to condemn this generation. He tells a story about a demon being expelled from a man and then returning, and says it is the story of “this generation.” Jesus evaluates individuals,... Read more
I have described Descartes’s cogito as modernity’s founding ingratitude, the thought experiment that justified (doubtless against Descartes’s ultimate intentions) countless political, intellectual, and cultural erasures of the past. So also biblical criticism, though the ingratitude takes a specific form here. Insofar as biblical criticism arises from “inner light” sectarians (and it does in large measure; see Reventlow), it is grounded in a notion of revelation that detaches it from tradition, not only from the tradition of interpretation but even from... Read more
Leithart
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