All of God does all that God does. But then it’s only the Son who is incarnated. Both are standard affirmations of classic orthodoxy, and it’s a trick to keep them together. In a brief summary of Augustine’s trinitarian thought in The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in . . . . Continue Reading »
Anticipating a number of recent studies, Rosenstock Huessy highlighted the theatricality of the French Revolution: “Not only did the actors try to play ‘the made day,’ but the madness of the Revolution was embodied in an actress who had to play the Goddess of Reason on the Field . . . . Continue Reading »
God is not “triple, or three by multiplication,” Augustine says ( The Trinity ). Nor does He get bigger by addition: “the Father alone or the Son alone or the Holy Spirit alone is as great as Father and Son and Holy Spirit together,” in contrast to bodies that “grow by . . . . Continue Reading »
What’s the difference between the Father’s relation to the Son, one of “begetting,” and His relation to the Spirit, that of “proceeding” (John 15:26). A distinction without a difference, serving only to protect against the conclusion that the Spirit is another . . . . Continue Reading »
Augustine knew of the contingencies of writing and readership. Some people, he says at the beginning of The Trinity (1.1.5) will not be able to understand what he writes, but there are others who could understand but will never encounter his book. That’s “why it is useful to have . . . . Continue Reading »
Near the beginning of his recent The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss (24-25) , David Bentley Hart has some fun, as he is wont to do, at the expense of fundamentalists who provide “soft and inviting targets” for new atheist attacks. Fundamentaists like “new earth . . . . Continue Reading »
Solomon brought in 666 talents of gold each year (1 Kings 10:14). Innocent of the ominous use of that number in Revelation 13 (not to mention The Simpsons ), the original readers might have said, “Way to go, Solomon! He’s filthy rich!” Plus, he’s got 500 gold shields (vv. . . . . Continue Reading »
Mike Bull points to a report on the maverick Bible scholar, Joseph Atwill , who claims that Roman aristocrats invented Jesus to compete with Jewish zealotry and wrote the gospels. One of his crowning pieces of evidence are parallels between Roman campaigns against the Jews and Jesus’ . . . . Continue Reading »
Rosenstock-Huessy knew Barth personally, but Rosenstock wasn’t a Barthian. He anticipated the Romerbrief , only to be disappointed when he read it. For Rosenstock-Huessy, Barth was just another Platonist using Christian symbols. The reaction was visceral: “The more I read Barth, the . . . . Continue Reading »
Rosenstock-Huessy recognizes Anthony, Athanasius, Jerome, and Augustine as pioneers who created new pathways for their followers to track. Anthony was crucial, and if Rosenstock-Huessy is to be believed, we owe much of the world we know to his initiative ( Religion, Redemption and Revolution: The . . . . Continue Reading »
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