James Jordan offers this argument to conclude that only firstborn between the ages of one month and five years died at Passover: 1. The redemption payment for the excess number of firstborn, when the Levites replaced them, was five shekels apiece (Numbers 3:46-48. 2. In the redemption schedule in . . . . Continue Reading »
Thomas (ST II-II, 2, 1) offers this neat spectrum of varieties of “acts of intellect” that have “unformed thought devoid of a firm assent”: Thos that “incline to neither side” are doubts; those that “incline to one side rather than the other, but on account . . . . Continue Reading »
Deuteronomy 10:18: The Lord executes justice for the orphan and widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. As Pastor Sumpter said in his sermon, the city of God is a city of love, and it’s no accident that the central ritual act in this city is a common meal. For . . . . Continue Reading »
During the fourth century, the church had in an intense debate about the nature of the Son who became flesh. Does the Father choose to create a Son, as Arius believed? Or is having a Son essential to the Father’s very existence as God? These debates seem tedious and irrelevant. Can anyone . . . . Continue Reading »
Anatolios sums up a wonderful exposition of Nyssa’s epistemology with this: “The distinctive character of Gregory’s epistemology . . . lies not so much in delimiting the extent of information that can be gleaned by the mind (he insists there is no limit) as in locating the act of . . . . Continue Reading »
Anatolios is careful not to claim that Nyssa is “fashionably postmodern,” but by characterizing Eunomius’s viewpoint as “logocentric” he acknowledges some “irresistible, if fragmentary parallels” between Nyssa and postmodern sensibilities about the . . . . Continue Reading »
Anatolios summarizes the soteriological consequences of the modalist-leaning theology of Marcellus of Ancyra this way: “Marcellus’s doctrine of God depicts divine being as a monologue - God is singular, monas ; in his own being, he is silent; in relation to creation, he utters his Word . . . . Continue Reading »
In Messiaen’s sequence of nine organ pieces on La Nativite du Seigneur , the piece entitled “Jesus accepte le Souffrance” is the seventh, between “Les Anges” and “Les Mages.” It seems to refer to the slaughter of innocents in Bethlehem, but Messiaen has . . . . Continue Reading »
Anatolios argues that one of the differences between theologians of the unity of will like Arius (Father begets Son by will) and theologians of the unity of being like Alexander and Athanasius (Son is of the Father’s very being) is the location of mystery. Arius located the apophatic limit in . . . . Continue Reading »
Anatolios ( Retrieving Nicaea ) admits that “we should not leap to the conclusion that a trinitarian theology based on ontological subordinationism, with Father and Son relating within a hierarchy of will and obedience, will necessarily lead to a monarchical political theology.” Yet, . . . . Continue Reading »
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