Aroma and memory are linked liturgically and spiritually as well as literally. The sacrifices were offered as “memorials” before Yahweh, as was incense. He was called to remember and act. The fragrance of the lover arouses the bride to remember him, and the reputation and name of our . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s often noted, but during this Advent the point struck home with particular force: John begins his gospel with the incarnational gospel that the “Word became flesh and tabernacled ( skenoo ) among us.” God the Word descends from heaven to pitch His tent with men. But that . . . . Continue Reading »
Today’s sermon is about hope. Hope is not certainty. Hope doesn’t guarantee complete control. A hopeful person is not someone who has anticipated and managed all the contingencies before he begins. Hope doesn’t avoid all mistakes and miscues. Hope is a virtue of adventurers: From . . . . Continue Reading »
I have an Advent meditation at http://www.firstthings.com/ this morning. . . . . Continue Reading »
Anatiolios offers this explanation of Athanasius’ defense of homoousios : “the meaning of the Nicene homoousios is contained in its function as a guide to a certain way of reading Scripture. An immediate hermeneutical consequence of this principle is that efforts to understand this term . . . . Continue Reading »
By insisting that “Creator” is a name intrinsic to God’s essence, Athanasius steps back into the problems from which Arianism arose in the first place. Anatolios notes that the debates about “Origen’s speculation that the title ‘Almighty,’ as a designation . . . . Continue Reading »
Advent seems to be about the shame of God, but this is nothing new. Long before the incarnation, God risked shame. He chose elderly Abraham and his barren wife – strangers and aliens, without country, without city, without seed – as the unlikely parents of His people. Yahweh became their . . . . Continue Reading »
My friend and former student Stephen Long sends along this quotation from Augustine and brief analysis that follows. The excerpt is from Augustine’s Sermon 187, a Christmas sermon. The portion in quotation marks is from Augustine, the paragraph at the end from Stephen. “When he took . . . . Continue Reading »
In place of the arborescent systems of modernity, Deleuze and Guattari rhizomic models. Herman Rapaport explains ( The Literary Theory Toolkit: A Compendium of Concepts and Methods ): “Traditionally, organic metaphors were used to suggest the coherence and closure of forms, since life forms . . . . Continue Reading »
We do not see Jesus. How do we know He is present? Smell and hearing are the senses of presence-in-absence, the senses that enable us to know the presence of what we do not see. Protestants know all about hearing Jesus. The fragrance of Christ is an undeveloped area of Christology. Smell is a . . . . Continue Reading »
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