Levin again: “Since, for Descartes, the senses are nothing but a source of deception and the body is nothing but perishable matter - that is to say, they are challenges, in both cases, to the power of the ego cogitans , the ego must ‘abandon’ them; the Cartesian ego is a cogito . . . . Continue Reading »
Levin interestingly explores the question of whether human beings are completely determined by history by emphasizing human embodiment. He plays off of Heidegger, who abandoned the “analytic of Dasein” in his later work because he had come to see it as a continuation of the . . . . Continue Reading »
Merleau-Ponty asks, in Humanism and Terror , “What if it were the very essence of history to impute to us responsibilities which are never entirely ours?” A very Augustinian, covenantal question. . . . . Continue Reading »
False subjectivity has led to nihilism. To combat the nihilism of modernity, Levin says that we need to challenge the “timeless” Cartesian self by affirming a “self open to changes in itself; a self which changes in response to changes in the world; a self capable of . . . . Continue Reading »
In his The Opening of Vision: Nihilism and the Postmodern Situation , David Levin briefly traces the line from humanism to 20th-century terror. Early moderns developed a vision “derived from an egological and essentially anthropocentric vision of reason: reason as instrumental, . . . . Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles 12 is a little book of numbers, listing leaders of each tribes and the numbers of “mighty men of valor” that accompany them. They assemble with their “weapons” (vessels) to make David King (v. 22). It is reminiscent not only of the census of Numbers . . . . Continue Reading »
The last sections of Matthew 27 link up with Matthew 28 to form a chiastic closure to the gospel: A. Jesus’ burial, 27:55-61 (itself a chiasm, as I showed in a post last week) B. Jews request a guard on the tomb to avoid deception, 27:62-66 C. Jesus rises from the dead, 28:1-10 B’. Jews . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION Along with Paul (1 Corinthians 15:4), we confess Jesus’ burial as an essential part of the gospel. What does the burial of Jesus add to His death and resurrection? THE TEXT “And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from . . . . Continue Reading »
In a stimulating but flawed 2008 article in the CBQ , Gerald Janzen recognizes that “under the sun” in Ecclesiastes draws on Genesis 1 to describe “the sun’s delegated rule over time.” He examines Isaiah 60 from this perspective, suggesting that the passage gives . . . . Continue Reading »
Ezekiel stands in a valley of bones and prophesies. There’s a great noise, and a rattling of bones (called a seismos by the LXX, an “earthquake”). Soon an army is before him, but without breath ( pneuma ). So Ezekiel prophesies again and the wind ( pneuma ) stirs . . . . Continue Reading »
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