In her essay, Pickstock notes the synaesthetic biblical exhortation to “taste and see.” It’s a regular biblical theme, not only in the Psalm 34. Adam and Eve taste and see. So does Jonathan. So do the disciples on the road to Emmaeus. So do we, each week as the Lord’s table, . . . . Continue Reading »
Catherine Pickstock’s contribution to the aforementioned volume on Paul explores the relation of worship ad the senses. She begins with the Pascalian observation that human beings are between beasts and angels, but rather than seeing this as a tragic failure of human nature, Pickstock rightly . . . . Continue Reading »
John Milbank ends his stimulating and confounding opening essay in Paul’s New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology with this: “any hopeful political project requires a sense that we inhabit a cosmos in which the realization of good and of justice might be . . . . Continue Reading »
During the ETS discussion, Wright made a point of emphasizing that justification in Paul is one narrow slice of his theology and not the whole. Wright has been protesting for years against the expansion of “justification” to include everything that Paul says about salvation. At one . . . . Continue Reading »
At ETS last week, the Toms - Schreiner and Wright - debated Paul and justification, along with Frank Thielman. The discussion was illuminating on many points, but on one central point it frustratingly kept missing the point. Schreiner accused Wright of a false dichotomy between soteriological and . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION Isaiah warns Judah not to trust man (2:22), and then gives the reason: Yahweh plans to remove all the powerful men from Jerusalem and Judah (3:1). THE TEXT “For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stock and the store, the whole supply . . . . Continue Reading »
Exodus 13:7-9: And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days . . . . Continue Reading »
In Genesis, firstborn sons are a brutish lot. Cain is the firstborn of firstborns, also the first fratricide. Ishmael mocks Isaac and is driven from Abraham’s camp. Esau would have been another Cain but for his brother Jacob’s wiliness. Jacob’s elder sons conspire to send Joseph . . . . Continue Reading »
Abel is righteous, but ends up dead at the hand of his brother. Jacob is perfect, and survives, in spite of Esau’s attempts to kill him. That progression foretells the progression of Israel’s exiles. In Egypt, they are “Abel,” exalted at first but eventually enslaved and . . . . Continue Reading »
Why did Yahweh send Israel to exile? Appealing to 2 Kings 25 and Ezekiel 17, Jon Levenson suggests that “Subjugation to the Babylonian emperor was indeed punitive, but the purpose of the punishment was to train the vassal in the ways of covenant fidelity. . . . We see here a chastened royal . . . . Continue Reading »
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