Antonio Lopez argues in his Gift and the Unity of Being for the priority of reception to creativity. This is not, he insists, “a diminishment of man’s greatness,” but rather “indicates his true stature.” He explains using the analogy of a traveler and the way: . . . . Continue Reading »
I affirm, and explain at the Trinity House site. . . . . Continue Reading »
I find Gorman’s definition of justification in terms of the restoration of right covenant relations less than convincing, mainly because, though he recognizes a legal/forensic aspect to the language of justification ( Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in . . . . Continue Reading »
Michael Gorman makes the interesting suggestion ( Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology , 73-4) that “the first half of Romans is essentially an expansion of Galatians 2:15-21,” moving from “justification” to . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s typical for Protestants to criticize Catholics for “objectifying” the sacraments and making them purely mechanical channels of grace, where faith is irrelevant. That’s a caricature of genuine Catholic teaching, but put that to the side. There’s a case to be made . . . . Continue Reading »
A remarkable statement from Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics on the necessary, incessant development of doctrine: “We need to overcome our astonishment over the fact that the New Testament nowhere explicitly mentions infant baptism . . . .The validity of infant baptism does not lapse on . . . . Continue Reading »
Tom Lodge’s Mandela: A Critical Life does a good job of explaining the mythical, iconic attraction that Mandela attained, and finds its roots in Mandela’s upbringing, his legal training, and the deliberate effort to present him as the face of a new Africa. Lodge writes, “Mandelas . . . . Continue Reading »
Sharing a meal seems like an egalitarian, democratic sacrament. Alice Julier thinks not, and argues in her Eating Together: Food, Friendship and Inequality that food practices have built-in hierarchies. In her TLS review of the book, Fran Bigman points out that “Although affluent hosts talk . . . . Continue Reading »
After his early death in 1960, J.L. Austin was nearly forgotten,. In recent years, there has been something of an Austin revival, as philosophers have given renewed attention to the issues of ordinary language and epistemology that Austin raised. Writing in the TLS , Duncan Pritchard notes that . . . . Continue Reading »
Virginia Postrel is the insightful author of a number of works of cultural analysis, including The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness and The FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress . . . . . Continue Reading »
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