Throughout the Old Testament, separation and division is a moment in an act of creation. Yahweh “divides” ( badal ) this and that five times in Genesis 1. He separates and sets apart Israel from the nations (1 Kings 8:53), Levites from the rest of Israel (Numbers 8:14; 16:9), priests . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah 59 opens with an arresting parallel line: A. Not shortened the hand of Yahweh B. from saving A’. And not heavy ( kavod ) his ear B’. from hearing. Several observations emerge from this structure. First, the connection of hand and ear is significant. Yahweh saves by His . . . . Continue Reading »
Menand and Rainey ( The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Vol. 7: Modernism and the New Criticism , 7-8) trace the influence of TS Eliot on the rise of New Criticism, ultimately of structuralism: “There was the inventive body of criticism that Eliot wrotebetween 1917 and 1924; the ways . . . . Continue Reading »
Following the theory of Peter Burger’s Theory Of The Avant-Garde, Menand and Rainey (Introduction to The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Vol. 7: Modernism and the New Criticism , 3-4) note that avant-gardism is (of course) an assault on bourgeois art, “an assaultaginst art as . . . . Continue Reading »
In their introduction to The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Vol. 7: Modernism and the New Criticism , Luis Menand and Lawrence Rainey comment on the increasing speed in the changeover of critical fashion fads: “as deconstructionis assimilated to various currents of feminist, . . . . Continue Reading »
Samuel Johnson had scarcely finished his preface to Shakespeare when a new enthusiasm for Shakespeare gripped Germany. Herder led the charge, and Herder inspired Goethe: “Goethe, whose Gtz von Berlichingen (1771) was a history playclearly inspired by Shakespeare, but Goethes Shakespeare was . . . . Continue Reading »
Francis gives sound advice on preaching: The homily “is a distinctive genre, since it is preaching situated within the framework of a liturgical celebration; hence it should be brief and avoid taking on the semblance of a speech or a lecture. A preacher may be able to hold the attention of . . . . Continue Reading »
Francis sees an analogy between docetic Christology and some of the cultural trends of our technologicla era: “For just as some people want a purely spiritual Christ, without flesh and without the cross, they also want their interpersonal relationships provided by sophisticated equipment, by . . . . Continue Reading »
In analyzing the challenges facing evangelization, Francis points to the danger of fatigue: “The problem is not always an excess of activity, but rather activity undertaken badly, without adequate motivation, without a spirituality which would permeate it and make it pleasurable. As a result, . . . . Continue Reading »
O’Donovan and O’Donovan offer an insightful summary of the contribution of northern European Humanists (More, Erasmus) to early modern political theory ( From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought , 554-5). Their principles sound proto-Hauerwasian: . . . . Continue Reading »
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