Bruce Malina ( On the Genre and Message of Revelation: Star Visions and Sky Journeys ) interestingly places Revelation in the “genre” of astral prophecy. One of the consequences of this classification is to specify the social location of the prophecy. As Malina notes, “The role of . . . . Continue Reading »
My colleague Chris Schlect suggested an interesting take on Yahweh’s threat to shave the beard from Judah, using the rented razor of Assyria (Isaiah 7:20). In Assyria, beardless men were eunuchs. Assyria will not only take men from Judah to be slaves, but will castrate them. That makes senses . . . . Continue Reading »
A lovely carol that I came across in the old Oxford Book of Carols. If I could sing, and if I could sing over my blog, I’d sing this. The melody is haunting. Awake were they only, those shepherds so lonely, On guard in that darkness profound. When colour had faded, when nighttime had shaded . . . . Continue Reading »
Seed of the woman, son of Sarah, true Israel, we greet You at Your coming. Branch of David, King greater than Solomon, we greet You at Your coming. Immanuel, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, we greet You at Your coming. Anointed One, Son of God, Son of Man, Word made flesh, we . . . . Continue Reading »
Burke and others warned that the British war with the American colonies was unwinnable. “The Ocean remains” was Burke’s argument, and “you cannot pump it dry.” Why fight? In a “Memorandum” written in 1778 and published in 1932, Adam Smith explained that it . . . . Continue Reading »
In an essay in Stephen Greenblatt’s New World Encounters (Representations Books, 6) , Frank Lestringant examines the work of Huguenot adventurer Jean de Lery, whose Histoire d’un voyage faict en la terre du Bresil (1578) influenced Locke, Bayle, Diderot, and Rousseau and was, in . . . . Continue Reading »
On the fourth Sunday of Advent, 1511, a Dominican friar, Antonio de Montesinos, preached a sermon to the Spanish colonists in the main church of Santo Domingo. Bartolome de Las Casas was in the congregation that day, and the rest, as the say, is history. Here’s the central portion of that . . . . Continue Reading »
If God is dead, all is permitted, Dostoevsky said. Westerners, particularly Protestant Westerners, instinctively translate that into a statement about authority. If God is dead, there are no rules, no laws to keep us in check. Protestants especially should see the folly of that conclusion. Law . . . . Continue Reading »
Father, You are light, and You dwell in the unapproachable, eternal light of Your Son and Spirit. In You is no darkness or shifting shadow. On the first day, You made light shine in the midst of darkness, and at the last Day You will dispel all darkness and shine as the light of Your people unto . . . . Continue Reading »
Whose heart is shaken by the report of the invasion of Aram and Israel (Isaiah 7:2)? The antecedent is not Ahaz, but the “house of David.” What is the “heart” of the house of David? Is it the temple, or perhaps even more specifically, the Most Holy Place? That would fit with . . . . Continue Reading »
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