Religious reading

Paul Griffiths is always wise: “religious reading requires the establishment of a particular set of relations between the reader and what is read. These are principally relations of reverence, delight, awe, and wonder, relations that, once established, lead to . . . close, repetitive kinds of . . . . Continue Reading »

By the fire

Peter warms himself at the fire in the High Priest’s courtyard (Mark 14:54; John 18:18). In only one passage of the Old Testament does anyone warm himself by a fire - in Isaiah 44:15-16. In Isaiah the fire is fueled by the wood left over from carving an idol. Peter joins an idolatrous band . . . . Continue Reading »

What Martyrs Want

Revelation uses the word “soul” ( psuche ) seven times (6:9; 8:9; 12:11; 16:3; 18:13, 14; 20:4). (Two moose just walked past my library window . . . .) The “seven” is suggestive of Genesis 1, and the other sevens of Revelation. Whether or not we can match up the seven uses . . . . Continue Reading »

Spewed from the mouth

Jesus threatens to vomit the lukewarm from His mouth (Revelation 3:16). That picks up on Old Testament descriptions of the land comiting out the inhabitants. But it also reminds us of the fish that vomited Jonah out onto dry land. That is a “return from exile” image: Jonah, the . . . . Continue Reading »

Like a thief

Jesus threatens to come to the church at Sardis “like a thief” (Revelation 3:3), and later warns the unprepared in Babylon that He is coming liek a thief (16:15). The latter passage indicates what Jesus is coming for: “Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he . . . . Continue Reading »

Naked and Ashamed

Before the fall, Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed in the garden (Genesis 2:25). After the fall, they saw their nakedness (3:7), and their behavior manifests shame, even though the word is not used. In the LXX, the two words “naked” and some form of “shame” are used . . . . Continue Reading »

Wretched Men

The church in Laodicea is wretched without knowing it (Revelation 3:17). The only other use of the word “wretched” in the New Testament is in Romans 7, where Paul laments after describing his divided existence under the law, that he is a “wretched” man longing for release. . . . . Continue Reading »

Ninety-Five Steps

Christian Smith’s How to Go from Being a Good Evangelical to a Committed Catholic in Ninety-Five Difficult Steps is fairly predictable. His criticisms of evangelicalism are on target in the main, and his Catholic arguments are pretty standard. Smith is careful about his audience: He is . . . . Continue Reading »

Maritime Order

Mead gives a nicely varnished picture of British establishment and support of its global maritime order. He doesn’t deny that the British broke some eggs, but he’s more interested in the omelet. C.A. Bayly’s superb The Birth of the Modern World: 1780-1914 (Blackwell History of the . . . . Continue Reading »

Winners

Mead gives a concise summary of Anglo-American military successes during the past three centuries: “Since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that established Parliamentary and Protestant rule in Britain, the Anglo-Americans have been on the winning side in every major international conflict. The . . . . Continue Reading »