John W. Dixon makes an intriguing argument in a 1998 Anglican Theological Review essay on “Trinitarian anthropology.” He offers a fundamental anthropology rooted in physics and evolutionary biology, and suggests “The human mind and its products are a part of the web of relations. . . . . Continue Reading »
Perichoresis was originally a Christological notion, describing the mutual penetration-without-mixture of the divine and human natures in Christ. It of course became primarily a concept in Trinitarian theology, but, according to Verna Harrison, in Maximus it was understood as an anthropological and . . . . Continue Reading »
Pliny the Elder is, James Mumford says, indignant and offended at babies, perhaps especially at the thought that he once was one ( Ethics at the Beginning of Life: A phenomenological critique , 111). In Natural History , he writes, “man alone on the day of his birth Nature casts away naked on . . . . Continue Reading »
James Mumford’s Ethics at the Beginning of Life: A phenomenological critique (Oxford, 2013) is a remarkable piece of work. It is a phenomenological study of the ethical import of how we come into the world. It is phenomenological because it attends “fixedly” to the phenomena. By . . . . Continue Reading »
In the Fall 2013 issue of Comment magazine, editor James KA Smith argues that we need to defend marriage precisely to protect the most vulnerable in our society. The negative effects of no-fault divorce and other legal changes hurt “the poor most of all.” Drawing on the argument of . . . . Continue Reading »
For Agamben ( Opus Dei: An Archaeology of Duty ), Suarez’s De natura et essentia virtutis religionis is a crucial moment in the development of modern notions of duty, particularly in the use to which debitum is put: “The concept of debitum , which in Aquinas is hardly formulated, . . . . Continue Reading »
Rosenstock-Huessy knew Barth personally, but Rosenstock wasn’t a Barthian. He anticipated the Romerbrief , only to be disappointed when he read it. For Rosenstock-Huessy, Barth was just another Platonist using Christian symbols. The reaction was visceral: “The more I read Barth, the . . . . Continue Reading »
Moshe Halbertal reviews the late Ronald Dworkin’s final book, Religion without God, in The New Republic . Dworkin’s position is “religious” first in the sense that it is non-naturalist, and for this he gives, Halbertal says, two main lines of argument, moral and aesthetic. . . . . Continue Reading »
The essays collected in Thomas Howard’s Imago Dei: Human Dignity in Ecumenical Perspective represent a spectrum of approaches to the question of human nature and human dignity. All the essays are rewarding. John Behr offers an Orthodox perspective that emphasizes the eschatological realization of . . . . Continue Reading »
In the course of examining various approaches to religious pluralism in Ways of Meeting and the Theology of Religions , David Cheetham cites Colin Gunton’s criticisms of Augustine’s Trinitarian theology. While he agrees with Gunton that human beings are “dialogic” he . . . . Continue Reading »
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