Over at Slate , Matthew Yglesias explains why Americans don’t take to the San Antonio Spurs, in spite of the Spurs’ apparent commitment to American values of teamwork, leadership, excellence, loyalty, hard work. Yglesias thinks it exposes the American character: “we are, . . . . Continue Reading »
Patrick Fitzgerald argues in an extensive and careful analysis of “Gratitude and Justice” in a 1998 issue of Ethics that recent philosophy has treated gratitude as too narrowly an issue of justice, asking the question “When is gratitude owed ?” Fitzgerald argues compellingly . . . . Continue Reading »
In his stimulating new volume, Metaphysics: The Creation of Hierarchy , Adrian Pabst offers a fresh (to me) assessment of Plato and his differences from Aristotle. Focusing on the problems of individuation, he argues that Plato offers a “relational” metaphysics that affirms rather than . . . . Continue Reading »
In her Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity: Ritual, Visual, and Theological Dimensions (pp. 190-191), Robin M. Jenson notes that in some early Christian iconography, Peter was substituted for Moses in the scene of the striking of the rock: “In the fourth century . . . the composition of . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION After the “Passover” deliverance from the Assyrians (Isaiah 37), Isaiah hears a voice announcing a new exodus (Isaiah 40:3, 6). Yahweh returns through the wilderness to Zion (vv. 3-11). THE TEXT “‘Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’ says your God. ‘ . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah 38:3: Remember, O Lord, I beseech you, how I have walked before You. We saw in the sermon today that Hezekiah’s prayer is a memorial. All prayer is anamnesis, an appeal to God to remember something – His promises, His great acts of the past, our loyalty to the covenant. This table . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew 3:11: John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. When John baptizes Jesus, the Spirit comes down as a dove and rests on Jesus. . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus ascended to become our defender, who lives to pray for us. At Pentecost, Jesus poured out the Spirit, who also intercedes for us. Our prayers to the Father are confirmed by the testimony of two divine witnesses, the heavenly witness of the Son and the earthly witness of the Spirit. The Son is . . . . Continue Reading »
JW Hewitt sums up the difference between Greco-Roman and Christian conceptions of charis in a 1925 Classical Weekly essay. Greek religion, “which discovered no impassible gulf between god and man, the relations of man to man and god to god were supposed to hold between man and god.” . . . . Continue Reading »
In the past, I have taken the story of Hezekiah and Babylon (2 Kings 20; Isaiah 39) as a sort of “fall” of Hezekiah. On further consideration, I don’t think this is sustainable. The episode seems to have another function in Isaiah, and I have concluded that there is no . . . . Continue Reading »
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