Naomi aims to provide “rest” for her daughter-in-law Ruth (Ruth 3:1), and the Hebrew word is manoach , built from the root nuach , which is the name of Noah, the one who gives rest to the earth. On a small scale, Boaz proves to be Noah redux, guiding Ruth and Naomi through the flood of . . . . Continue Reading »
When he is first introduced in the narrative of Ruth, Boaz is called a ‘ish g ibbor chayil , a “mighty man of strength.” “Mighty men” are usually violent warriors - the Nephilim who dominated the earth before the flood (Genesis 6:4), Nimrod (Genesis 10:9), . . . . Continue Reading »
In a discussion of the legends of Constantine ( Constantine the Great and Christianity ), Christopher Bush-Coleman notes how efforts to demythologize the man end up creating new myths: “Many of those writers who discard in largest measure material from earlier writers as legendary have . . . . Continue Reading »
So writes Laura Helmuth at Slate . And she accepts the consequence: Young people are less so. “Things go horribly wrong in societies composed largely of young people. The Lord of the Flies is fiction, but the Lord’s Resistance Army is all too horrifyingly real. One of the worst . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah 57:17 is structured chiastically: A. Because of his unjust gain B. I was angry C. I struck him C’. Having hid B’. I was angry A’. And he went turning in the way of his heart. The “he” could be Israel, or Israel’s king, or even, given the allusions to . . . . Continue Reading »
Harold Segel’s The Walls Behind the Curtain: East European Prison Literature, 1945-1990 shows the ingenuity of poets and writers in responding to circumstance and lack. For some poets, prison forced them back to the origins of poetry, back to oral composition: “When writing tools are . . . . Continue Reading »
The subtitle to Peter Andreas’s tells it all: Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America . America is a product of its long borders and frequently illicit border crossings. In his TLS review of the book, Eric Rauchway sums up Andreas’s thesis: “Washington made a new nation at . . . . Continue Reading »
The latest issue of The New Yorker published a series of prayers that Flanner O’Connor put into a journal beginning in early 1946 when she studied at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Several describe her distance from God, and the way her ego prevents her from knowing God as she would like: . . . . Continue Reading »
During the week of December 16-20, James Jordan will lecture on the book of Genesis at Trinity House. Registration for the class is now open . . . . . Continue Reading »
What was the Reformation about ? Following David Yeago and others, I argue that it was centrally about idolatry, and that the Reformers’ response to idolatry was centrally about Christology and sacramental theology. . . . . Continue Reading »
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