Philippians 2:5: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Toby has pointed out this morning how much Paul emphasizes the effect of the gospel and the Spirit on our minds. We are to strive together with one mind, to cultivate humility of mind, set our minds on heavenly things – on the exalted heavenly King Jesus – and not on earthly things. Throughout the letter, Paul urges us to remember, consider, think, and he assures... Read more
Genesis 2:21-22: So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Let us Pray. Blessed are You, Almighty God, our Father, for You created the world so that You could form us as the bride of... Read more
Bediako says that Christianity has always had more success evangelizing primal religious areas than “advanced” religions like Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam. Or modern Western secularism. Perhaps the West needs to be re-primitivized in order to be re-evangelized. Or perhaps the West needs to learn that it was never so advanced as it thought, that it was always more primitive than it claimed to be. And this more or less exactly what cultural anthropology had been doing. And it’s part... Read more
According to the Muslim commentator Ibn Abbas, “after the fall, Adam and Eve fasted for forty days and Adam abstained from having sex with Eve for a hundred years.” Read more
George Williamson argues in Longing for Myth in Germany (Chicago, 2004) that the search for a “new mythology” developed from “the postrevolutionary experience of historical rupture and religious crisis.” Nationalist writers gave a particular spin to this by calling for a “German mythology.” Originally, in the early German romantics, the “project of a new mythology was conceived as the outcome of historical processes generated within modern (Christian) society,” but “over the course of the nineteenth century the discourse on myth... Read more
It is widely argued today that the early German romantic movement anticipates postmodernism; the early romantics were postmoderns before their time. Frederick Beiser differs, and notes three critical differences between German romanticism and the mainstream of postmodern philosophy. First, the early romantics were Platonists “in their belief in a single universal reason, in the archetypes, ideas, or forms that manifest themselves in nature and history.” Second, they strove “for unity and wholeness” and wanted to “overcome the fundamental divisions of... Read more
German idealism is often seen as the completion of the subjectivization of knowledge and reality begun by Descartes. Not so, says Frederick Beiser in his massive 2002 history of German idealism (Harvard): “In fundamental respects it is more accurate to say the exact opposite: that the development of German idealism is not the culmination but the nemesis of the Cartesian tradition. Explicitly and emphatically, the German idealists criticized some of the central assumptions of that tradition: that self-consciousness is certain... Read more
Jean-Luc Marion challenges the Cartesian cogito by stressing the primacy of the erotic. According to Descartes’s formula ( Ego sum res cogitans ), “it follows by omission that I am no longer supposed to love, nor to hate; or better: I am of such a sort that I have neither to love, nor to hate, at least in the first instance. To love would not belong to the first modes of thought and, therefore, would not determine the more original... Read more
Barth argues that 18th-century rational theology was rooted in prior commitments to peaceable citizenship and morality. The dynamic goes something like this: Christianity is interpreted pragmatically – it’s about the transformation of human life; but it doesn’t work – human life isn’t transformed; there must therefore be something wrong with Christianity itself. All the scientific and philosophical discoveries of the 18th century are picked up as tools to critique a Christianity that doesn’t mean prior moralistic standards. Generalizing, Barth adds... Read more
In his history of Protestant theology in the 19th century, Barth lists some of the sermon topics of one Traugott Gunther Roller of Schonfels in Kur-Saxony: Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: The Duties of a Christian Congregation saved from the Grave Risk of Fire. Easter: Reasonable Rules for the Christian Burial of Corpses. Pentecost: How to keep Faithful and Safe during Thunderstorms. First Sunday After Trinity: Horrific Sin of Premeditated Murder. Read more
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