Eucharistic meditation

Revelation 19:7, 17-18: Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready . . . And I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice to all the birds which fly in midheaven, Come, assemble for the great . . . . Continue Reading »

Exhortation

The church calendar teaches us about Jesus, so we can be faithful disciples. In Epiphany, we focus on the manifestation of Jesus, culminating today in His glorification the Mount of Transfiguration. On Wednesday, we enter the season of Lent, when we re-focus on the suffering and sacrifice of . . . . Continue Reading »

Puritan fasts

In their introduction to The Culture of English Puritanism,1560-1700 (Themes in Focus) , Christopher Durston and Jacqueline Eales spend several pages discussing the role of fasting in Puritanism. The begin with Patrick Collinson’s remark that “an anthropologist wanting to describe . . . . Continue Reading »

Subject and object

In reaction to modern or postmodern subjectivism, Christians often pound on “objectivity.” This is often no solution, but only a shift from one pole to another within the same paradigm. In fact, subject and object are not neatly separated from one another. Subjects are objects in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Neglecting my vineyard

The Bride of the Song is blackened by the sun, and she is in the sun because she has been forced to care for the vineyards by her angry brothers and has neglected her own vineyard. This is often taken as an allegory of Israel’s neglect of her calling. Instead of cultivating the vineyard of . . . . Continue Reading »

God acting humanly

Yeago again, explaining Maximus’s use of the soul/body distinction in his discussion of Christology. The spirit/soul union is his main example of a “union according to hupostasis . Maximus explains: “the features which mark off someone’s body from other bodies, and . . . . Continue Reading »

Neo-Chalcedonian

In his Modern Theology article on Maximus, David Yeago helpfully lays out the intentions and assumptions of what he calls Neo-Chalcedonian Christology. The overall aim, he says, “was to interpret the definition of Chalcedon in a manner faithful to the central christological insights of Cyril . . . . Continue Reading »

What is a letter?

Michael Root summarizes the notion of “configurational” understanding, as opposed to a “theoretical” understanding of things, that has been developed by Louis O. Mink: In narratives, events are “elements in a single and concrete complex of relationships. Thus a letter . . . . Continue Reading »

Double will

In a lengthy footnote to a brilliant article in Modern Theology on Maximus the Confessor’s cosmic Christology, David Yeago summarizes Maximus’ explanation of how Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer refutes Monothelitism: “According to Maximus, the words ‘let this cup pass from . . . . Continue Reading »

People and Hosts

In Isaiah 34:1, the prophet summons the nations to draw near. It seems to be a call to Gentiles, but several things suggest that it is a call to Israel and the Gentiles together. goyim , which begins the verse, is clearly the Gentile nations, but the word translated as “people” ( leom ) . . . . Continue Reading »