Thomas Doherty gives a chilling example of Nazi film criticism in his Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 . As summarized by the TLS reviewer, “Nobody sensed the power of cinema more acutely than the propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. As early as December 1930, at the German premiere of . . . . Continue Reading »
Modernism, Arthur Danto argues in What Art Is posed a fundamental challenge not only to artistic styles but to the very conception of art. As Ian Ground explains in his TLS review of Danto’s book, Danto believed that art as capable of definition even if we have lost the ability to make things . . . . Continue Reading »
The TLS reviewer of The Library: A World History gives some tantalizing examples from the book, such as “the Tripitaka Koreana (1251), housed in a monastery high in the mountains of South Korea. Its rough-hewn timbers are freighted with wooden printing-blocks comprising a complete set of the . . . . Continue Reading »
It seems that many, if not most, of Jenson’s most shocking innovations fall neatly into place once we recognize his debt to Barth, especially Barth’s doctrine of election. To wit: Election is God’s self-determination. It is not only a determination of the future of the world and . . . . Continue Reading »
In the early church, the heretics were the ones mouthing dusty truisms. The orthodox were the philosophically adventurous . . . . . Continue Reading »
According to the NASB translation, “David gave to his son Solomon the plan ( tabnit ) of the porch ( ulam ) of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms, and the room for the mercy seat” (1 Chronicles 28:11). David plays Moses to Solomon’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Jenson notoriously denies the logos asarkos , insisting that the pre-existent one is none other than Jesus Christ. It’s a confusing notion, but in his discussion in Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God (140-1), it’s a fairly straightforward implication drawn from a Barthian . . . . Continue Reading »
In books 6-7 of The Trinity , Augustine teases out the meaning of 1 Corinthians 1:24, which identifies Christ as the Wisdom and Power of God. Is, Augustine asks, Christ the Son the Wisdom by which the Father is wise, or the Power by which the Father is powerful? He muses and ponders, but ultimately . . . . Continue Reading »
Jenson ( Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God , 108-9) refers to Thomas’s definition of persona as “a relation in the mode of substance” ( ST 1, 29, 4) and asks, “How does this work within the narrated reality itself?” His answer is a tightly-packed little . . . . Continue Reading »
Augustine’s The Trinity unfolds in such large sweeps that it is easy to lose the flow of argument. As Books 3-4 weaves through discussions of theophanies and numerological musings on the proportion of 1 and 2, and the perfections of the number 6, it’s easy to forget what the question . . . . Continue Reading »
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