Peter J. Leithart

In a 1992 survey of recent work on the early church’s views on Christian participation in the military (in Religious Studies Review ), David G. Hunter sums up with this: “the ‘new consensus’ would maintain: 1) that the most vocal opponents of military service in the early . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 1976 issue of the Scottish Journal of Theology , F. Stuart Clarke examines Athanasius’ doctrine of predestination, and ends with the comment that Athanasius would have rejected the predestination doctrines of Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin “as being, in principle, Arian, . . . . Continue Reading »

Jenson again, a propos of impassibility, but with wider application: “The temptation that regularly besets us is fundamentalist longing to think that this conversation has come to a satisfactory rest at some point in the past, whether with the Fathers or Thomas or Luther or Barth or whomever, . . . . Continue Reading »

Robert Jenson (an essay in Divine Impassibility and the Mystery of Human Suffering ) notes that Thomas teaches that “God’s foreseeing determines what is seen,” and specifically determines what is seen “with respect to their ordering to their good,” which is Himself. . . . . Continue Reading »

INTRODUCTION Our Christmas carols are often sentimental and inaccurate.  The church has done far better with Advent hymns, which highlight what the prophets highlight: The promise that the Lord will restore Zion, and so bring light to the Gentiles. THE TEXTS “I will greatly rejoice . . . . Continue Reading »

I am a postmillennial, and postmils like to speculate about the long view.  What is the church and world going to be like after another several millennia of evangelism, baptism, teaching, discipline, Eucharistic merriment?  My answers to that tend to be: 1) The state of things, over time . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaiah 7:14-16: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son and she will call His name Immanuel.  He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.  For before the boy will know enough to refuse . . . . Continue Reading »

In the early twentieth century, the virgin birth became a litmus test of orthodoxy.  Fundamentalists affirmed the virgin birth; modernists denied it.  The debate was about miracles: Fundamentalists believe that God can alter the normal pattern of creation and make things work differently. . . . . Continue Reading »

A. N. S. Lane summarizes some themes of Barth’s treatment of the virgin birth: “Barth saw in the virgin birth the expression of a wider truth that is fundamental to his theology. It shows that ‘human nature possesses no capacity for becoming the human nature of Jesus . . . . Continue Reading »

Song of Songs 2:16a: “My beloved is mine, and I am his”; 6:3a: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”; 7:10: “I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me.” Let us pray Almighty God, our Father: You dwell in an eternal fellowship of love with your Son and . . . . Continue Reading »