At a couple of points in his Course , Saussure suggests that the “primary characteristic of the spoken sequence is its linearity.” It is a “chain,” a “line.” I find this questionable, but he makes interesting use of the image: “In itself, it is merely a line, a continuous ribbon of sound, along which the ear picks out no adequate or clearly marked divisions. In order to do so, recourse must be had to meanings.” Listening to an unknown language,... Read more
A “sign” in Saussure’s terminology consists of a signification (a concept or idea) and a signal (the “sound pattern” associated with the idea). He suggests some analogies: “This unified duality has often been compared with that of the human being, comprising body and soul. But the parallel is unsatisfactory. A better one would be with chemical compounds, such as water. Water is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen: but taken separately neither element has any of the properties of water.”... Read more
Saussure associates langue with collective social realities; it is the system created by society and existing, almost identically, in every member of a linguisitic community. He associates parole , in turn, with individual expressions within the system. The system is impervious to change: “changes are never made to the system as a whole,” though each individual change in parole might have “repercussions” for the system. This distinction is crucial for Saussure, and it seems analogous to the notion of an... Read more
Christianity Today had this about rumors that Gorbachev was a Christian: Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St Francis of Assisi in Italy. Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the Soviet Union, confronted speculations that he had been a closeted Christian during an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.... Read more
In a JSOT lecture, published in a 1989 issue of JSOT, James Barr probes Brevard Childs’s claim that “a fundamental characteristic of the critical movement was its total commitment to the literal sense of the text.” Not so, Barr argues. On the contrary, the whole impetus behind biblical scholarship since 1800 has been the conclusion that the literal sense of the Bible is often false. Critical scholars were thus faced with the choice of abandoning the Bible as a source... Read more
A couple of thoughtful observations from members at Trinity Reformed Church on Lent and penitential seasons: Hannah Grieser suggests that there is an analogy between the Lord’s Day liturgy and the church year; the church year is the Lord’s Day writ large. Since we have a penitential moment in our Lord’s Day worship, it seems reasonable for us to have a penitential moment/season as part of the larger rhythm of the church calendar. Sara Appel notes that there is a... Read more
Daniel and his three associates each had two names – a Jewish and a Babylonian. Jim Jordan points out in his recent commentary that the Jewish names are used when the men pray and the Babylonian names when they advise the king. They apparently have no moral qualms about this dual identity, this divided political and social self. But it’s striking that in chapter 2 Daniel interprets the king’s dream as “Daniel.” Nebuchadnezzar addresses him as Belteshazzar (2:26), but it’s... Read more
Again, a Frame move, this time from Aquinas: If “the divine will is perfectly efficacious, it follows not only that things are done, which God wills to be done, but also that they are done in the way that He wills. Now God wills some things to be done necessarily, some contingently, to the right ordering of things, for the building up of the universe.” Levering comments: “God wills that Jane be a human being with free will (God wills... Read more
Obvious enough, but here goes: God must be outside time, Lord of time, to be within all time. If he was within time as creatures are within time, He could not be present at all times. As John Frame likes to say, our theology should be done in “because of” mode rather than “in spite of.” God is responsively within time not in spite of the fact that He is unbound by time, but because He is unbound by time. Read more
Levering also cleverly argues, drawing again from Aquinas, that a “metaphysical” account of God’s being and knowledge accomplishes the aims of “non-metaphysical” accounts, but better. Non-metaphysical theologies claim that classical theism has rendered God inert and static, distant and cold. But according to Aquinas God knows everything outside Himself in knowing Himself, and this includes knowing “all possible statements or judgments of truth” and this includes all the “infinite number of thoughts and affections of the heart” that immortal human... Read more
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