A line from Dickinson: “the nerves sit ceremonious like tombs.” This is an extremely complex literary device, or set of devices. First, personification: The nerves “sit” like people, and sit in a particular way, ceremoniously. Second, the personification spreads out to . . . . Continue Reading »
A student, Heather Denigan, is working on Emily Dickinson, and pointed me to this remarkable poem about baptism: I’m ceded, I’ve stopped being theirs; The name they dropped upon my face With water, in the country church, Is finished using now, And they can put it with my dolls, My . . . . Continue Reading »
Creation, Gregory of Nyssa insists, is not eternal: “For we have learned that the heaven and the earth were not from eternity, and will not last to eternity, and thus it is hence clear that those things are both started from some beginning, and will surely cease at some end.” On . . . . Continue Reading »
When I made some sharp comments about Thomas Oord’s book on love a few weeks back, Oord wrote to inform me that he’s written another book that deals more overtly with the themes I found lacking in his other book. Oord conceded that I might remain unsatisfied even then, but I . . . . Continue Reading »
It seems common-sensical that the existence of something logically precedes its self-expression. Trinitarian theology assaults that common sense. There is no Father except as He has a Son; no Father who has not always already generated His perfect image and likeness; no God who has not always . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m not convinced Gregory’s argument from opposites ( Against Eunimius 9.4) is sound, but it’s intriguing and engaging. Here’s the argument: Certain realities have direct opposites that cannot coexist. Light cannot coexist with darkness, but expels and destroys it. . . . . Continue Reading »
Gregory charges Eunomius (10.2) with believing he can climb past the word to a direct encounter with the Ungenerate Father. As Gregory sees it, Eunomius is saying that “the human mind, scrutinizing the knowledge of real existence, and lifting itself above the sensible and intelligible . . . . Continue Reading »
The Sermon on the Mount begins with beatitudes, and the Olivet Discourse begins with Woes. As N. T. Wright and others have shown, the two series are similar in a number of particulars. The connections between the two discourses continue after the beatitudes/woes section, evident in . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus sits on a mountain and opens His mouth to teach (Matthew 5:2). The phrasing is unusual; I have found only one place in the OT where opening the mouth is linked with teaching - Proverbs 31, 26, where it is the excellent woman who opens her mouth with wisdom and teaches kindness. . . . . Continue Reading »
You are the salt of the earth. You are a light on a lampstand. Where does Jesus get this? From the temple: Salt is added to the animal sacrifices, and in the Holy Place there are lights on lampstands. Does he ever get into the Most Holy Place? Yes: In Matthew 5:17-20, He . . . . Continue Reading »
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