Adam and the Tree of Knowledge

Would Adam have been admitted to eat from the tree of knowledge if he had kept the probation in the garden? Jim Jordan has argued from hints in Genesis 1-3 that the answer is Yes. Perhaps there’s also some further hint in Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus goes into the wilderness, and is keeping a fast; . . . . Continue Reading »

Eucharistic Meditation, February 20

?Then Elijah said to them, ?Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.?ESo they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. Now Elijah said to Ahab, ?Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of a roar of a heavy shower.?ESo Ahab went up to . . . . Continue Reading »

Exhortation, February 20

We are in the second week of the traditional season of Lent. Lent covers the forty days prior to Easter, and is a fast in preparation for the feast of the resurrection. In some of the earliest churches, baptismal candidates prepared during these forty days for their baptism at Easter. It gradually . . . . Continue Reading »

A Walk Through the Trinity Liturgy, 4

INTRODUCTION In Jesus?Eparables, the evangelistic invitation is often an invitation to a feast, a royal banquet (?the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding feast . . . .?E. Christian liturgy is an enactment of that invitation and our response to it. In the call to worship, we are . . . . Continue Reading »

Westphal on Onto-theology

Merold Westphal offers this helpful definition of “onto-theology” in an article found here : “The term is often used by assistant professors who have appointed themselves campus terrorists and, alas, by senior scholars who should be more careful, as a kind of sci-fi conceptual . . . . Continue Reading »

Sermon Outline, March 20

Destroy this Temple, Mark 13:1-37 THE KING RETURNS Palm Sunday celebrates the king?s coming to His city. On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem, hailed as a king. -He requisitions a donkey, claiming it as Lord: ?The Lord has need of it.?E -The donkey has been tied and needs to be untied (Mark . . . . Continue Reading »

Renaissance Machinery

Another interesting review in the TLS , of Jessica Wolfe’s Humanism, Machinery, and Renaissance Literature (Cambridge), an exploration of the literary uses of machinery and machine imagery in Renaissance literature. According to Wolfe, Renaissance writers saw “the profound applicability . . . . Continue Reading »

Greenblatt on Will

Alastair Fowler has an eviserating review of Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World in the February 4 issue of the TLS . He finds that Greenblatt, despite his new historicist interest in the historical embeddedness of literature, is rather sloppy with historical facts and contexts. Like other . . . . Continue Reading »

Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite

This is the first of what may turn out to be (but also may not turn out to be) a series of outlines or summaries of David Bentley Hart?s Beauty of the Infinite . My goal in this outline (or, these outlines) is not to critique Hart so much as to understand him. This is an outline of the Introduction . . . . Continue Reading »

Garber on Julius Caesar

More from Marjorie Garber?s book, this time on Julius Caesar . 1) Though the play is often assigned to high school students, Garber says that the play is ?one of Shakespeare?s most subtle and sophisticated,?Eexploring such issues as ?the nature of kingship, the relationship of the public to the . . . . Continue Reading »