Verhey has a nice discussion of the nature/supernatural distinction that locates the difference in eschatology. He points out, for starters, that “the regularities of the world we name as ‘natural laws” are not regularities of a self-contained machine but rather then ways God . . . . Continue Reading »
In his discussion of the “Baconian project” in his recent Nature and Altering It , Allen Verhey makes the common-sensical, but often ignored, observation that mastery of nature doesn’t necessarily mean improvement: “Knowledge, in Bacon’s view, is power over nature, and . . . . Continue Reading »
Human labor is an imitation of and participation in the creative work of God, and fulfilling human labor has the same structure as God’s creative work. We take hold of the world, tear it apart, reassemble it, give it a new name, and then evaluate the products of our labor (as James Jordan has . . . . Continue Reading »
Three cheers, and more, for John Bolt, who’s been working for several years to get Bavinck’s Dogmatics into English. He caps off his work with a one-volume abridgment ( Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume ). Need a reason to choose Bavinck? Go no further than these criticisms of . . . . Continue Reading »
Over on his blog (I can see it in the distance), Ben Witherington has been working through my book on Constantine. His latest post criticizes my biblical arguments at the end of that book. I hope to address some of his criticisms over the next few days, and I’ll start with his charge that my . . . . Continue Reading »
A student’s (Tyler Abens) paper on the theme of imitation in Paul begins with a description of experiments comparing how children learn to how monkey’s learn. The experiment indicates that, contrary to the monkey-see, monkey-do mythology, humans learn by imitation and monkeys do not. . . . . Continue Reading »
Matt Petersen sends along the following excerpt from Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Creation of Man, ch. 8, concerning hands: “1. But man’s form is upright, and extends aloft towards heaven, and looks upwards: and these are marks of sovereignty which show his royal dignity. For the . . . . Continue Reading »
Contentment is a spiritual challenge, but it is also something of a puzzle. Scripture urges us to hope, but how do hope and contentment fit together? How is contentment compatible with work, proper ambition, planning and goals? Am I discontented if I want my business to make more profit next year? . . . . Continue Reading »
What makes us different from the animals? Reason? Upright posture? Heidegger said that the answer is more obvious: What makes us different from animals is our hands. Equipped with hands, we can use equipment, and with our equipment we can build and paint and sculpt and click a mouse make and repair . . . . Continue Reading »
Jacob Schmutz’s contribution to Surnaturel: A Controversy at the Heart of the Twentieth-Century Thomistic Thought (Faith and Reason: Studies in Catholic Theology and Philosophy) is a dense exploration of the development of the theology of pure nature in the context of shifting notions of . . . . Continue Reading »
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