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 »
My only, very slight, complaint about Jane Austen’s England is its somewhat misleading title. Roy and Lesley Adkins mention Austen regularly throughout the book, using her letters and novels as sources for sketching the social life of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. But . . . . Continue Reading »
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