In Isaiah 36, Sennacherib comes on the scene “ascending” ( ‘alah ). He “went up” to Jerusalem. At the end of the narrative, though, he returns, descending back to Nineveh where he came from. Jesus’ story is descent followed by ascent; other kings ascend first, . . . . Continue Reading »
In The Living and True God: The Mystery of the Trinity (New Revised Edition ) (p. 54) , Luis Ladaria makes the intriguing point that the Persons of the Trinity cannot be persons in precisely the same sense: “we can in effect doubt that the term ‘person’ or hypostasis means exactly . . . . Continue Reading »
“Why is the Tetragrammaton kept separate from other names?” Luther asks. “Can it be so sacred, and other names so profane, that it is polluted when brought into contact with them? Such would be the fictions of the Jews.” No Kabbalist he. Yet, he goes on: “The meaning . . . . Continue Reading »
Christianity brought the “end of sacrifice,” the replacement of the bloody animal sacrifices of paganism and Judaism with the sacrificial feast of the Eucharist. But not quite the end, or at least not quite everywhere. In a 1903 article, Fred Conybeare explored the “survival of . . . . Continue Reading »
Who else but Cyril O’Regan to write the essay on Hegel’s Trinitarian theology in The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity (Oxford Handbooks in Religion) ? As with Schleiermacher, Ja’s and Nein’s are both in order(pp. 257-9). On the plus side (sort of): “Hegel makes the . . . . Continue Reading »
Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering have assembled a star-studded collection of contributors for their The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity (Oxford Handbooks in Religion) . The book covers the entire history of Trinitarian thought - from the Old and New Testaments, through patristic and medieval . . . . Continue Reading »
“When did destiny become manifest?” asks Ernest Lee Tuveson in his classic Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America’s Millennial Role (Midway Reprint Series) . He answers the earliest formulations of the apocalyptic American millennialism arises in the 1760s, best exemplified by the . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION We want help making a decision, guidance for marriage and child-rearing, instructions about how to overcome sin. In response, God gives us a book full of genealogies, architectural blueprints and procedures for offering sacrifice, narratives of ancient history. The Bible doesn’t . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah’s account of Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem is organized in a neat chiasm: A. Sennacherib’s invasion and the Rabshakeh’s message, 26:1-22 B. Hezekiah goes to temple, Isaiah prophesies, 37:1-7 A’/C. The Rabshakeh’s boast is repeated in a letter, 37:8-13 . . . . Continue Reading »
Genesis 2:9; 3:6: Out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food . . . . So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. The word . . . . Continue Reading »
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