Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow Me,” which is to say, “Be willing to die with me.” Instead the disciples flee. But it gets worse. The word “sword” is used six times in Matthew 26:47-56, three times in verse 52 alone. (Otherwise, . . . . Continue Reading »
John Milbank throws down a challenging gauntlet to Protestants in the Afterword to The Radical Orthodoxy Reader . He explains Radical Orthodoxy as a continuation of the attack on extrinicism launched by the nouvelle theologie . Barth, he argues following the critiques of Przywara and . . . . Continue Reading »
Bonhoeffer shows how love of God and love for His creation can be reconciled by using a musical analogy: “God wants us to love him eternally with our whole hearts - not in such a way as to injure or weaken our earthly love, but to provide a kind of cantus firmus to which the other melodies of . . . . Continue Reading »
David Cunningham writes, “What was one a ‘kiss of peace,’ uniting bodies in an almost frighteningly intimate way, now often consists only of a tentative handshake and a mumbled greeting. Of course, this does still provide an opportunity to meet the other face to face, body . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Adults and Children in the Roman Empire (1989), Thomas Wiedemann remarks on the difference between pagan and Christian conceptions of infant death: “For the pagan, premature death was a disaster because the child’s life was wasted; for Augustine, a child who died prematurely . . . . Continue Reading »
A friend, Aaron Cummings, writes in response to my comments about Derrida and prodigal words: “A few days ago, you alluded to Derrida, that words run prodigal from the speaker/writer. You said that this was true of Mankind’s words, but not of God’s. It seems to me that this is true . . . . Continue Reading »
For Athanasius, creation’s multiplicity is not a defect but part of its glory. No created thing supplies all need; no single light illuminates day and night. So there are many lights. Each light is its own essence, but these essences cooperate to fill what is lacking in the . . . . Continue Reading »
Arianism is not just about Christology. It’s about theology proper. Arius said that God made His Son before the creation because the creation could not endure the “untempered hand” of the Father. It needed the Son as mediator. Athanasius sees in this a false idea . . . . Continue Reading »
Athanasius notes that before the incarnation humanity was under the dominion of false gods, enslaved to corruption and idolatry. The Word took flesh to deliver us from that slavery, and the form of that deliverance was an act of worship: “in this body offering Himself for all, . . . . Continue Reading »
Near the end of his fifth oration, Gregory flies off into an ecstatic review of the Spirit’s work and titles. It is in some ways standard pneumatology, but the overwhelming rhetorical flood has never been surpassed. “Christ is born; the Spirit is His Forerunner. He is baptized; . . . . Continue Reading »
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