In his study of Image, Word and God in the Early Christian Centuries , Mark Edwards contrasts the place of text and language in early Christianity and Platonism. For Christians, Scripture is “an archive of salvific truths that could not have been known otherwise,” while for Platonism . . . . Continue Reading »
In his unjustly neglected work on Medieval Institutions and the Old Testament (1965), Johan Chydenius notes the fateful shift in the logic of interpretation during the course of the middle ages: “According to the typological outlook, not only the mystery of Christ taken by itself but also the . . . . Continue Reading »
De Lubac ( Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture, Vol. 1 ) answers with a catena of quotations from the church fathers: “Scripture is like the world: ‘undecipherable in its fullness and in the multiplicity of its meanings.’ A deep forest, with innumerable branches, . . . . Continue Reading »
With the help of the Bible and Rosenstock-Huessy, I reflect on the problem of family continuity at Firstthings.com. . . . . Continue Reading »
2 Thessalonians 1 is today’s epistle reading in the Revised Common Lectionary. Or, actually, it’s a few bits and pieces of 2 Thessalonians 1. The reading includes the first four verses, which includes Paul’s customary greeting, thanksgiving, and encouragement, skips most of the . . . . Continue Reading »
Over many centuries, one of the standard ways for Christians to integrate ancient into biblical history was a twist on the ancient Euhemerist theory that the gods were originally kings and heroes who were granted divine status at death. In biblical Euhemerism, the heroes are biblical heroes, whose . . . . Continue Reading »
In a chapter on Hamann in The Eighteenth Century Confronts the Gods , Frank Manuel is careful to distinguish Hamann’s views from “the commonplace tradition which explained the wide usage of myths, fables, parables, allegories by the wise rational legislators of antiquity as a . . . . Continue Reading »
Mark Horne examines the biblical definition of “gluttony” at the Trinity House site this morning. . . . . Continue Reading »
Edwards speculates ( The Miscellanies, 1153-1360 , #1236) that the dispersion of the Jews was so massive that it sent Jews all the way to China: “It is probable that some of the Israelites that had been carried into captivity penetrated as far as China, long before the Christian era; because . . . . Continue Reading »
Jonathan Edwards summarized a widely held opinion when he claimed that Chinese language and civilization perpetuated the language and civilization of the immediate post-diluvian world: “Their language seems not to have been altered in the confusion of Babel. Their learning is reported to have . . . . Continue Reading »
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