Person and essence

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

Gilles Emery writes concerning Thomas’s view of essence and person in the Trinity, defending Thomas against Rahnerian-style charges: “There is . . . not ‘derivation’ of persons from an essential act in Thomas. This observation clarifies anew the structure of the treatise on God: the distinction of the two sections of the treatise (what concerns the essence, then what concerns the distinction of persons) does not express a separation between a treatise on a ‘monopersonal’ God and a treatise on... Read more

Greatest good

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:43 pm By Peter Leithart

Bonaventure wrote: “Behold, therefore, and observe that the highest good is unqualifiedly that than which no greater can be thought. And this good is such that it cannot rightly be thought of as non-existing, since to exist is absolutely better than not to exist.” So far, so Anselmian. Then Bonaventure takes a Trinitarian turn: (more…) Read more

Branch and Stone

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

The “seven-eyed” stone in Zechariah 3:9 has been variously interpreted – for example, as the crown on the head of the high priest Joshua (the seven eyes being the letters engraved on the crown), as the kingdom of God, as a stone with seven “springs” (in Hebrew, the same word is used for “eye” and “spring”). The sequence of verses 8-9 suggest that the Branch and the stone are related and perhaps one and the same. That is, the stone,... Read more

Holy City

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:43 pm By Peter Leithart

Babylon was considered a holy city in the ancient world, its kings consecrated by power given by Marduk. This is the reason the Persians destroyed the temple of Esagila and deported the statue of Marduk to Persia (or, by some accounts, melted it down) when the Babylonians revolted against Persian rule in 482 B. C. Persian de-sacralization worked: This was Babylon’s last revolt, since no king could be properly consecrated without the temple and image. The biblical contest of Jerusalem... Read more

Protestantism and the Postmodern Self

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

Postmodernism has, we are told, “decentered” the modern self, that unified, sovereign, isolated, godlike “thinking thing” discovered by Rene Descartes. The postmodern self is not single but multiple; not sovereign but controlled by external forces; not isolated but “embedded” in the world and in relation; not godlike, but human, all too human; not a thinking mind so much as a desiring body. Many Christians, laboring under the illusion that the modern view of the self is identical to the Christian... Read more

Michael’s Dispute

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

This is an old essay from Biblical Horizons, which is not currently available on the BH site. Jude 9 raises several difficulties (though not insuperable difficulties) for conservative commentators. The event that Jude recounts does not seem to be drawn from the Old Testament, and most scholars claim, based on statements of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, that Jude borrowed this story from the Assumption of Moses, an apocryphal work. If true, this raises the question of the status of... Read more

Sermon Notes, Third Sunday After Easter

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

INTRODUCTION Jesus promises rest to the weary who come to Him (11:28-30). Next thing we know, He’s in conflict with the Pharisees over the Sabbath (12:1-14). Jesus’ Sabbath-keeping stands in sharp contrast to the Sabbath-keeping of the Pharisees. The response of Israel’s leaders is becoming more defined: They want to kill Jesus (v. 14). THE TEXT “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and... Read more

Eucharistic meditation, Second Sunday After Easter

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:39 pm By Peter Leithart

Matthew 11:25, 27: At that time Jesus answered and said, I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes . . . . All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”... Read more

Exhortation, Second Sunday After Easter

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm By Peter Leithart

In our sermon text, Jesus speaks of the Father who hides and reveals things. We like the idea of a God who reveals things, but a God who hides things is disturbing. Jesus is not the first to talk about the hiding and hidden God. Isaiah said, “You are a God who hides Himself,” and several prophets speak of the Lord hiding His face from His rebellious people, and several Psalms are pleas that God would not hide. (more…) Read more

Making priests

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

In her recent book on the temple origins of Christian worship (T&T Clark, 2007), Margaret Barker notes the various meanings attached to baptism in the NT. She disputes Paul Bradshaw’s conclusion that this variety means “the process of becoming a Christian was interpreted and expressed in a variety of ways,” arguing instead that there’s an underlying unity: “The little that can be recovered about the initiation of the ancient royal high priests suggests that this was the origin of Christian... Read more