God of the Gospel

Scott Swain’s attention to Robert Jenson’s work in The God of the Gospel: Robert Jenson’s Trinitarian Theology is welcome. As Swain points out early on, quoting David Hart, Jenson hasn’t received nearly the attention he deserves, and this is a loss for theology generally and . . . . Continue Reading »

Biblical Trinitarian

One of the great virtues of Scott Swain’s The God of the Gospel: Robert Jenson’s Trinitarian Theology is his insight into the biblical foundations of Robert Jenson’s Trinitarian theology. He points out that Jenson “argues that the doctrine of the Trinity’s primary . . . . Continue Reading »

What Trent Did, and Didn’t

The TLS reviewer of John O’Malley’s Trent: What Happened at the Council points out some of the omissions of the Council: “As O’Malley argues, however, what was not discussed is every bit as significant as what captured the delegates’ attention. There was barely a . . . . Continue Reading »

Transmitting Newton

We speak blithely of modernity and the Enlightenment, as if the mere writing of a treatise suddenly changes the way people think. Margaret C. Jacob has spent a good part of her career retracing the conduits by which atomistic and mechanistic conceptions of the universe became part of the common . . . . Continue Reading »

God surprising God

Stratford Caldecott explains the logic of self-giving within the Triune life ( The Radiance of Being: Dimensions of Cosmic Christianity , 110-111): “it is the Father, not the Essence, who gives, but the Father is the Essence, or not -other than the Essence, and what is given also is the . . . . Continue Reading »

Newton and the Trinity

In his contribution to John Paul II on Science and Religion: Reflections on the New View from Rome , T.F. Torrance claims that Maxwell’s investigations into field phenomena arose from theology, specifically from a Trinitarian dissatisfaction with Newton’s universe: “Clerk . . . . Continue Reading »

Taunts and Thanks

Psalm 79 is a lament over the destruction of Jerusalem. The temple is defiled, the city ruined (v. 1). It is a macabre sacrifice: Bodies are left for the birds and beasts, and blood flows like water (vv. 2-3). And Israel’s enemies who have carried out this devastating taunt Israel and Yahweh . . . . Continue Reading »

What Judges Do

“God is Judge,” says Asaph (Psalm 75:7), and the rest of the Bible agrees. As Judge, He doesn’t just render verdicts. He raises horns (vv. 4-5); He cuts off the horns of power and lifts the horns of the righteous (v. 10). Exaltation and humiliation is His job (v. 6). as Judge, He . . . . Continue Reading »