“Let us spend the night in the villages,” says the Bride to her lover in Song of Songs 7:11b. “Villages” is kefariym , from kapar , to cover in the sense of atonement. Lexicons tell us that the word is used for “village” in 1 Chronicles 27:25, which may be the . . . . Continue Reading »
Most English translations render Song 7:5c as “The king is captivated by your tresses.” “Captivated” is not a felicitous translation, since the “capture” embedded in the word has been largely lost. The king might be captivated, but the Hebrew says that he is . . . . Continue Reading »
The bride’s eyes are like “pools in Heshbon, beside the gate of Bath-rabbim” (Song 7:4). Eyes are for inspection, organs of judgment. These are watery eyes that are like pools, and so there is a hint of a water-ordeal. And the eyes are like pools beside the gates, watching to see . . . . Continue Reading »
Two Psalms include polemics against idols, in almost identical language: “They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see . . . ” (Psalm 115:5-8; 135:15-18). Both, importantly, follow on the heels of poetic recountings of the exodus. Psalm 114 is about the Jordan and . . . . Continue Reading »
In a New Yorker interview, Simon Critchley discusses his recent The Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology , which raises fundamental doubts about the possibility of a secular political order: “Even if you look at things like social democratic forms of government, which . . . . Continue Reading »
1 Corinthians 10:16-17: Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf. Today, the communion bread is being . . . . Continue Reading »
Some of you may have noticed during the past week: Lent is controversial. It is controversial partly because Christians have long abused it, partly because some see Lent as a symbolic boundary between Protestant and Catholic. Most of the Reformers retained Lent, but gave it a dramatically new form. . . . . Continue Reading »
Barth described theology as “an act of penitence and obedience” that works through “an attitude of prayer.” And he kept that Lenten image of theology before him by hanging a copy of the Isenheim Altarpiece over his desk. Matthew Boulton explains this in his God Against . . . . Continue Reading »
The created things that are added to the choir in Revelation 5:13 are divided into four zones: Heaven, earth, under the earth, and sea: Angelic beings and sky creatures, the sun, moon, and stars; all humans and earth-creatures; all dead beings that have been inserted into the earth; and the sea as . . . . Continue Reading »
One reads Bultmann on eschatology and thinks, How Kantian! Then one thinks: Or is it the other way round? Is Bultmann a Kantianization of Christian eschatology, or is Kant a philosophical riff on Lutheran or Pietist eschatology? One reads Bultmann on history and eschatology and hears Derrida . . . . Continue Reading »
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