Peter J. Leithart

During the fourth century, the church had in an intense debate about the nature of the Son who became flesh. Does the Father choose to create a Son, as Arius believed? Or is having a Son essential to the Father’s very existence as God? These debates seem tedious and irrelevant. Can anyone . . . . Continue Reading »

Anatolios sums up a wonderful exposition of Nyssa’s epistemology with this: “The distinctive character of Gregory’s epistemology . . . lies not so much in delimiting the extent of information that can be gleaned by the mind (he insists there is no limit) as in locating the act of . . . . Continue Reading »

Anatolios is careful not to claim that Nyssa is “fashionably postmodern,” but by characterizing Eunomius’s viewpoint as “logocentric” he acknowledges some “irresistible, if fragmentary parallels” between Nyssa and postmodern sensibilities about the . . . . Continue Reading »

Anatolios summarizes the soteriological consequences of the modalist-leaning theology of Marcellus of Ancyra this way: “Marcellus’s doctrine of God depicts divine being as a monologue - God is singular, monas ; in his own being, he is silent; in relation to creation, he utters his Word . . . . Continue Reading »

In Messiaen’s sequence of nine organ pieces on La Nativite du Seigneur , the piece entitled “Jesus accepte le Souffrance” is the seventh, between “Les Anges” and “Les Mages.” It seems to refer to the slaughter of innocents in Bethlehem, but Messiaen has . . . . Continue Reading »

Anatolios argues that one of the differences between theologians of the unity of will like Arius (Father begets Son by will) and theologians of the unity of being like Alexander and Athanasius (Son is of the Father’s very being) is the location of mystery. Arius located the apophatic limit in . . . . Continue Reading »

Anatolios ( Retrieving Nicaea ) admits that “we should not leap to the conclusion that a trinitarian theology based on ontological subordinationism, with Father and Son relating within a hierarchy of will and obedience, will necessarily lead to a monarchical political theology.” Yet, . . . . Continue Reading »

The word “maiden” is used twice in the Song, first in 1:3, where the Bride says that the maidens love her Lover, and then in 6:8, where the maidens join with the queens and concubines in praising the bride. At the beginning, the maidens love the lover, but by the end of the Song they . . . . Continue Reading »

Job 32 states the dilemma of the book: “Job was righteous in his own eyes,” and Elihu burns against him “because he justified himself more than God” (vv. 1-2). Job suffers. If Job sinned and suffers just punishment, God is justified. But Job refuses to admit sin commensurate . . . . Continue Reading »

Merit, Jonathan Edwards said, is “anything . . . in one person . . which appearing in the view of another is a recommendation of him to the other’s regard, esteem and affection.” On this definition of merit, Edwards is able to insist that imputation is not “unreasonable, or . . . . Continue Reading »