Barth’s doctrine of election feels incarnational because it is the determination of the Son to be the incarnate Son. Traditional Reformed dogmatics always insisted, as Richard Muller has shown, always election in Christ. But, again, the fact that in electing the elect in Christ God the Son . . . . Continue Reading »
Traditional Reformed dogmaticians place the decree of election in the doctrine of God. So does Barth. But they do it very differently. The difference, if I might be allowed a simplistic caricature, is in the question of whether election is a determination of creation or also a determination of the . . . . Continue Reading »
Back to Christian Smith’s Bible Made Impossible, The: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture : Smith’s argument against Biblicism rests on the “pervasive interpretive pluralism” evident among evangelical Biblicists. Despite their claim to understand . . . . Continue Reading »
In summarizing the argument of the first seven books of de Trinitate , Luigi Gioia ( The Theological Epistemology of Augustine’s De Trinitate ) distinguishes between the “outer layer” of the opening books of de Trinitate, which concerns the mystery of the Trinity especially as . . . . Continue Reading »
A friend, Chuck Hartman, offers a Trinitarian account of economic exchange: He describes it as a perichoretic reality. Each party to the exchange benefits the other, so there is a mutual glorification in exchange. It “amens the Trinity.” He points to an analogy with the Fifth . . . . Continue Reading »
A summary of Barth’s Trinitarian theology, mostly in the form of brief questions and answers. The exercise is expositional, not critical; my answers would not be the same as Barth’s at every point. The page numbers in parenthesis below are from Church Dogmatics I.1. 1. Why does he . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew 18:5: Whoever receives one such child in my Name receives Me. Here at Trinity, we baptize infants, a lot of them. Most churches throughout the centuries have done the same. We also believe that the Lord’s Supper is open to baptized children who are capable of sharing it. That is more . . . . Continue Reading »
One of God’s great acts of grace is to reveal His Name. The gods of the nations often had secret names, known only to priests and used only for occult spells. The gods hid to shield themselves from the demands of needy humans. Yahweh doesn’t hide His Name, doesn’t reserve it to a . . . . Continue Reading »
After quoting extensively from Isaac Watts’s nationalistic renditions of the Psalms (Psalm 47 is made to say “The British islands are the Lord’s, / There Abraham’s God is known”), Willie James Jennings ( The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race ) . . . . Continue Reading »
In the first wasf of the bride in Song of Songs 4, the bride is seen behind a veil. Her eyes are like doves “behind your veil” (v. 1), her temples like pomegranate “behind your veil” (v. 3; cf. 6:7). There is no veil in the second extended wasf in 7:1-9. And the lover can . . . . Continue Reading »
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