Baptism and Objectivity

Can “an over-concentration on the ‘objectivity’ of baptism . . . lead to a . . . casual or careless approach to actual Christian obligations”? Wright says so ( Paul and the Faithfulness of God , 963). But that assumes that what baptism “objectively” says and does . . . . Continue Reading »

Paul Ryan, Politician

Newt sees what Ryan is doing with his budget deal: Taking the budget and government shutdown out of the discussion for the mid-term elections, increasing the likelihood of a GOP takeover of the Senate. A savvy move. Then Ryan becomes the object of Tea Party attack. Perhaps that was part of the . . . . Continue Reading »

Receptive giver

Discussing the filioque, Coakley ( God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ , 332-3) argues that the only Sonship in the Trinity is the one “sourced” by the Father in the Spirit . This formulation reinforces the mutually constituting character of the Persons: . . . . Continue Reading »

Passionate self-control

Coakley ( God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ , 14-15) neatly shows that self-control does not result from a restraint of passion but from the source passion itself, which is the Spirit: “The Spirit’s ‘protoerotic’ pressure, felt initially as . . . . Continue Reading »

God, Sexuality, Self

Sarah Coakley does some very interesting things in God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ , the first volume of a proposed four-volume systematics. She “risks” writing for a general Christian audience, and her readable, even entertaining book shows that it . . . . Continue Reading »

God’s righteousness

In a helpful discussion of the justification as a status-creating declaration, Wright ( Paul and the Faithfulness of God , 946-7) once again insists that the righteousness that describes the legal status of the justified person cannot be the same as the righteousness of the judge himself: . . . . Continue Reading »

My Name is Bond… .

British doctors have concluded that James Bond is an alcoholic . BBC reports: “Doctors in Derby and Nottingham sat down to read the 14 Bond novels in their spare time.With a notebook at hand they charted every day and every drink.Excluding the 36 days Bond was in prison, hospital or rehab, . . . . Continue Reading »

Triune sex

Criticizing Levinas’s dyadism, Luce Irigaray writes, “He know nothing of communion in pleasure. Levinas does not ever seem to have experienced the transcendence of the other which becomes an immanent ecstasy . . . The other is [merely] ‘close’ to him in . . . . Continue Reading »

Trojan Pope

Mary Eberstadt thinks that Francis is a Trojan Pope . In his recent encyclical, he denounces consumerism and the “throw-away” culture for its treatment of animals. The Trojans cheer, but Eberstadt thinks that Francis is a sly one: “The bridge between the religious and secular . . . . Continue Reading »

Foodie Jesus

Jesus came eating and drinking. We rarely stop to ask, What did He eat and drink? How was it prepared? Douglas Neel and Joel Pugh, the first an Episcopal priest and the second a retired CPA, both amateur cooks, though to ask, and give their answers in their delicious The Food and Feasts of Jesus: . . . . Continue Reading »