When Jonathan eats honey during the battle, his eyes are “brightened” (1 Samuel 14:27, 29; Heb. for “brightened” is ‘or ). By eating honey, his eyes burn like lamps. By eating honey, his eyes burn like the flames of Jesus’ eyes (Revelation 1:14), eyes that . . . . Continue Reading »
Ministers raise hands over the congregation at the closing benediction, in imitation of Aaronic priests (Leviticus 9:22) and of Jesus (Luke 24:50). Why? Jesus blessed the disciples just before He parted from them, ascending into a cloud (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9-10). Benediction is linked with . . . . Continue Reading »
In his classic study of Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Stories of Faith & Fame) , p. 418 , W. H. C. Frend concludes that “The ultimate legacy of the persecutions was the lasting division of Christendom into its eastern and western parts.” In the east, a “more . . . . Continue Reading »
Martyrs are almost by definition in positions of weakness. But the early accounts of Christian martyrs show that martyrdom tended to overturn the balance of power. Two examples from Eusebius illustrate the point. One story begins with a domestic conflict. A Christian wife married to a philandering . . . . Continue Reading »
Intellectually and politically, Christianity is a stability. We have a foundation. But Christianity also has a high tolerance for instability, uncertainty, imperfection, incompletion. The reason is that our foundation is that our foundation is not below us, set in the past; rather, our foundation . . . . Continue Reading »
Steven Crowell ( A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) ) gives this helpful explanation of what Husserl means when he says, counter-intuitively, that objects are “constituted” by the mind: “he means neither that the mind composes a . . . . Continue Reading »
Why, Leszel Kolakowski ( Husserl Search For Certitude ) wants to know, do philosophers talke about “Ego” when they mean the person, the self, or the soul? He thinks it’s a trick of language: You can’t say that the Ego is the philosopher, a real “I,” since for . . . . Continue Reading »
In his contribution to A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy) , Steven Crowell summarizes the aims of phenomonology: it is “descriptive” rather than “constructive”; it aims at “clarification, not explanation”; it is . . . . Continue Reading »
In his German Idealism: The Struggle against Subjectivism, 1781-1801 (p. 138-9), Frederick Beiser offers this lucid explanation of “the transcendental” in Kant: “Rather than reducing experience down to the level of individual consciousness, the critical philosophy makes both the . . . . Continue Reading »
According to Dermot Moran’s account ( Introduction to Phenomenology ), Husserl’s phenomenology was an effort to arrest “cultural fragmentation and relativism, brought about by deep uncertainties about the nature and project of reason in the twentieth century. Husserl saw himself . . . . Continue Reading »
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