Baylor’s Alexander Pruss offers this nifty Aristotelian critique of Humean natural law: “The most basic dichotomy between views of laws of nature is that between Humean views on which the laws of nature are merely descriptions of the actual states of affairs that obtain, and anti-Humean . . . . Continue Reading »
“Persona est rationalis naturae individua substantia,” said Boethius in his treatise on the two natures. This has been viewed as a radically deficient definition of personhood, but Peter Simpson argues that it’s got more going for it than many imagine. In response to the charge . . . . Continue Reading »
David Goldhill’s article on health care reform in the current issue of the Atlantic bears the provocative title, “How American Health Care Killed My Father.” It opens with the story of his father, who died at 83 from an infection he picked up at a hospital, as he says “one . . . . Continue Reading »
Barnes again: “For Gregory the transcendence of God includes the capacity to produce; indeed, Gregory’s conception of this capacity as a dunamis means not only that this capacity exists as a natural capacity in God, but because this capacity is the dunamis of the divine nature, . . . . Continue Reading »
Michel Rene Barnes ( The Power of God: Dunamis in Gregory of Nyssa’s Trinitarian Theology ) claims that the fourth century Trinitarian debates are not just a debate about relations but a debate about “productivity,” and thus about “power.” The question that divides . . . . Continue Reading »
In a TLS (August 14) review of William Doyle’s recent Aristocracy and Its Enemies in the Age of Revolution , David Armitage made some intriguing comments about the sea change in the fortunes of aristocracy that took place in the 18th century. For the French, he points out, nobility was not . . . . Continue Reading »
Paul draws a direct analogy between the relation of the human spirit to the human being and the relation of the Holy Spirit to God. Our spirits know the thoughts that are in us, and so the Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). Not only does this provide support for the . . . . Continue Reading »
Is the vestigia tradition valid? Does the NT give us any warrant to think that there will be Trinitarian imprints on the creation? The answer is Yes. 1 Corinthians 12 describes the diversities of gifts from the one Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God (vv. 4-6). Gordon Fee suggests that the . . . . Continue Reading »
That Paul says that the crossing of the sea is a “baptism” is surprising enough; but then he says that the baptism is “into the cloud.” Where’d he get that? You can suss that out from the exodus story, but I suspect that Paul has conflated the exodus story with the . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION Jesus finishes His prophetic discourse with a series of three parables – the parable of the wicked slave (24:45-51), the parable of the ten virgins (25:1-13), and the parable of the talents (25:14-30). Each of these is about expectation, and each describes how wise and faithful . . . . Continue Reading »
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