Peter J. Leithart

Griffiths argues ( Song of Songs (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible) , pp. 30-31) that the analogy between human love and God’s gift of love to us is found in “the sheer excess of human sexual love, its radical disproportion to its biological and social functions, its deranged . . . . Continue Reading »

Paul Griffiths brilliantly analyzes the lovers’ obsession with one another’s bodies in the Song ( Song of Songs (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible) , p. 30): “Lovers are interested in one another’s bodies, indeed absorbed by them. They gaze into one another’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s an intriguing etymology. The Hebrew word na’ah is used only three times in the Old Testament (Psalm 93:5; Song of Songs 1:10; Isaiah 52:7), meaning “to be beautiful.” It appears to come from navah , “to sit, to dwell.” It has the sense of “sitting . . . . Continue Reading »

Some reflections on how the Bible is practical at http://www.firstthings.com/ this morning. . . . . Continue Reading »

Evangelicals like to quote Paul’s letter to Timothy: “All Scripture is God-breathed, and profitable for teaching, correction, training in righteousness, that the man of God may be equipped for every good work.” Paul affirms that God is the author of the written text, a sine qua non of Evangelicalism. Paul also stresses the usefulness of Scripture, an equally favored Evangelical theme… . Continue Reading »

Summarizing the 16th-century Reformed formulations of Eucharistic theology, John Williamson Nevin ( The Mystical Presence: And the Doctrine of the Reformed Church on the Lord’s Supper (Mercersburg Theology Study) , p. 51) says: “The sacrament is made to carry with it an objective force . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the most heartening developments in the Reformed world in the past two decades is the renewal of interest in the Mercersberg movement. And one of the most heartening developments within that development is Wipf & Stock’s plan to publish a multi-volume collection of Mercersberg . . . . Continue Reading »

Tournier ( Escape from Loneliness. , pp. 25-6) talks about the instability that results from religious conversions: “One woman, a soul eminently sensitive and deep, born a Catholic, was converted to Protestantism under influences which naturally I would not criticize. For her it was from an . . . . Continue Reading »

In his Escape from Loneliness. (pp. 22-3) , Paul Tournier laments the “tragic isolation of the elite” that he sees in the Swiss Protestant church. He writes, “I have rarely felt the modern man’s isolation more grippingly tha in a certain deaconness or a certain pastor. . . . . Continue Reading »

Phenomenology, especially in its Heideggerian variety, attempts to overcome the modern obsession with epistemology and return us to being, to ontology. What Heidegger in fact seems to do is overcome the divide between epistemology and ontology so that philosophy is both at the same time, but . . . . Continue Reading »