Virginia Burrus offers a challenging feminist reading of the first of Athanasius’ Orations against the Arians in ‘Begotten, Not Made’: Conceiving Manhood in Late Antiquity (Figurae: Reading Medieval Culture) . Her attention to Athanasius’ sexually charged rhetoric . . . . Continue Reading »
PROVERBS 29:1 This proverb deals with a man with a hardened neck. The combination of terms is often translated as “stiffnecked” and typically described Israel. They display their stiff necks when they erect the golden calf (Exodus 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9), and their stiffnecked . . . . Continue Reading »
Dostoevsky is not usually thought of as a comic writer, but he was a great comedian and satirist. When Grandma shows up unexpectedly at the casino in The Gambler , the novel takes a sudden Woodhousean turn. Feodor Karamzov is disgusting, but hilariously so. His greatest comic . . . . Continue Reading »
Lee Martin McDonald (in the afore-cited article) suggests that intimidation was one factor in sharpening Christian polemics against Judaism. Jews were, after all, vastly more numerous than Christians: “By the turn of the first century, those who counted themselves among the Christians . . . . Continue Reading »
Christians often operate on the assumption that the New Testament marked the end of interaction between Christians and Jews. Paul shakes the dust off his feet at Rome, quotes Isaiah 6, and that’s that. The danger that Christians might deconvert to Judaism was over as soon as the . . . . Continue Reading »
From Acts on through the church fathers, it was a commonplace among writers that the Jews were involved - sometimes leading, sometimes following - in persecuting the church. Judith Lieu ( Neither Jew Nor Greek?: Constructing Early Christianity (Academic Paperback) ) doubts the evidence. . . . . Continue Reading »
Let us stipulate that the vineyard is the temple and the bride is Jerusalem. That clarifies two passages of the Song. “They made me caretaker of the vineyards, but I have not taken care of my own vineyard” (1:6). True enough; Jerusalem did not care for the temple-vineyard in . . . . Continue Reading »
In Putting on Virtue: The Legacy of the Splendid Vices , Jennifer Herdt explores, among other things, the anxiety about hypocritical virtue in early modern ethical thought. How can virtue be acquired - “put on” - and still be sincere, authentic? How can virtue depend on . . . . Continue Reading »
When assessing worries about American empire, some historical perspective is helpful. Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper reminds us in Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference that “Throughout history, most people have lived in political units that did not pretend . . . . Continue Reading »
If hope is directed to things that we don’t yet see or possess (and it necessarily is, Hebrews 11), how can what we also already possess what we hope for? There are a number of ways to answer that question, but Segundo Galilea puts it nicely in his Spirituality of Hope : “The project of . . . . Continue Reading »
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