Self-Interpreting Texts

Marjorie Garber argues that our view of Romeo and Juliet has been altered by contemporary trends and events.   Romeo has become the standard American high school Shakespeare play, and some of its themes and sensibility were taken up by the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s. As a . . . . Continue Reading »

Sermon notes

INTRODUCTION Where the Spirit is, there is a temple of God.  The Spirit dwells in each of us (1 Corinthians 6:19) and in the church as a whole (Ephesians 2:19-22).  When the Spirit dwells in a home, the home becomes a house of the Lord. THE TEXT “And I, brethren, could not speak to . . . . Continue Reading »

Humanized Christianity

During the 1840s, Russian literary culture was overtaken by enthusiasm for French Romantic Socialism, mediated through novelists like George Sand.  The extent to which this liberal socialism was a humanistic reduction of Christianity is evident from the creed of V. Belinsky, the arbiter of . . . . Continue Reading »

Remaking Gogol

Joseph Frank ( Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time ) makes the intriguing argument that Dostoevsky’s use of Gogol (especially “The Overcoat”) in Poor Folk is parody, but parody that strengthens rather than undermines the central thematic thrust of Gogol’s work.  He writes: . . . . Continue Reading »

Reverse Jericho

At the dedication of the city walls in Nehemiah 12, priests process around the walls carrying and blowing trumpets (vv. 35, 41).  Last time we saw priests, trumpets and city walls, they were the walls of Jericho tumblin’ down. At Jericho, priests with trumpets brought down the city walls . . . . Continue Reading »

Justification of the ungodly

David Bentley Hart writes somewhere about the revolutionary character of the gospel’s depiction of the tears of Peter after his denial of Jesus.  Ancient pagan writers, Hart argues, could only have seen the tears of a fisherman as material for parody, not pathos. This was explicitly the . . . . Continue Reading »

Clean and Unclean

In his treatise against Faustus the Manichean, Augustine cites 1 Timothy4 in a discussion of clean and unclean foods.  He is trying to demonstrate the harmony of Old and New, and parrying Faustus’ claim that Catholics as much as Manicheans reject the Old Testament.  Augustine . . . . Continue Reading »

In a name, 2

Supporting his criticism of Arians using the name of their teacher instead of the name of Christ, Athanasius points to the fact that Greeks who turn to Christ and join the church cease to be called Greeks and become known as Christians ( anti Ellenon archontai christianoi kaleisthai ).  In . . . . Continue Reading »

In a name

Athanasius condemns the Arians for taking the name of Arius their teacher rather than Christ: “never at any time did Christian people take their title from the Bishopsamong them, but from the Lord, on whom we rest our faith. Thus, though the blessed Apostles have . . . . Continue Reading »