In his Church History , Socrates Scholasticus exemplifies the character of the renowned miracle-worker Paphnutius, bishop of Upper Thebes and victim of the Diocletian persecution by recounting a speech he made at Nicea: “It seemed fit to the bishops to introduce a new law into the Church, . . . . Continue Reading »
The Economist has the best obits, but they’ve outcome even their usual standards with the March 31 obituary of Lyn Lusi, a Baptist missionary in Congo, who died on March 17. The obit includes this moving description of the beginnings of HEAL Africa, the ministry that Lusi and her husband Jo . . . . Continue Reading »
An exaltation of tweets. To observe Lent rightly, we have to be persuaded that we already stand in God’s favor. Ash Wednesday reminds us to number our days. It helps us gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). We keep Easter to manifest and deepen our prior share in resurrection. We observe Lent . . . . Continue Reading »
The “kings of the earth” who rebel against Yahweh are mentioned at the beginning of the Psalms, and Yahweh’s response is to install His own king on Zion (Psalm 2:2, 6). Then Yahweh’s king drops out of the picture for awhile. Yahweh is identified as King (Psalm 5:2; 10:16) . . . . Continue Reading »
Weinsheimer explains how Gadamer can think of interpretation as “play” while avoiding the bogeyman of an interpretive “free-for-all”: “In playing, we do not stand over against the game; we particular in it. A player who does not get fully involved in the game is called . . . . Continue Reading »
Joel Weinsheimer ( Philosophical Hermeneutics and Literary Theory ) neatly summarizes Gadamer’s argument that objectivism and subjectivism are the same thing: “Governing itself by rule, objectivity tries methodologically to eliminate bias, prejudice, and all the distortions that go by . . . . Continue Reading »
Sara Ruth, Parker’s wife in Flannery O’Connor’s “Parker’s Back,” represents a confluence of religious themes. She is an uncorruptible Eve, who won’t be tempted to premarital sex even after accepting an apply from Parker. With her “icepick” eyes, . . . . Continue Reading »
Paul’s pneumatology in summary: The Lord who has become life-giving Spirit fills him. The Lord, the Spirit transforms him from glory to glory as he gazes at the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Since the glory of Jesus is the glory of the cross, Paul’s translation into glory means . . . . Continue Reading »
Gadamer says that every thing that is to be interpreted gives rise toa plurality of interpretations. This is not a free-for-all but rather “the work’s own possibilities of being that emerge as the work explicates itself, as it were, in the variety of its aspects.” A reader of a . . . . Continue Reading »
Gadamer writes ( Truth and Method (Continuum Impacts) ): “A person who is trying to understand a text is always projecting. He projects a meaning for the text as a whole as soon as some initial meaning emerges in the text . . . . Working out this fore-projection [prejudice], which is . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
