Violence and the soul

“Whenever we meet a human being, then, we meet that extraordinary creature who can think of time past and time to come, and times that never were,” writes Anthony Esolen in an essay on “the Subhumanities.” To reduce a human to his animal instincts is an act of violence: . . . . Continue Reading »

Disenchantment of sex

Jody Bottum’s Catholic case for same-sex marriage gets this right: The sexual revolution was a war on the meaningfulness of sex, and in the aftermath of that revolution’s utter victory, we have no cultural resources to oppose same-sex marriage: “if heterosexual monogamy so lacks . . . . Continue Reading »

God glorifying God

Does God do all He does to glorify Himself, or for the sake of His creatures? Neither alternative satisfies. If the former, He seems a cosmic narcissist; if the latter, a cosmic therapist. According to Jenson ( America’s Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwards , 39), Jonathan Edwards . . . . Continue Reading »

Gays in the church

Molly Ball reports at the Atlantic on the “quiet revolution” in Christian views of gays and gay marriage over the past decade. “Congregations across the country increasingly accept, nurture, and even marry their gay brethren,” she writes. “Polls show majorities of . . . . Continue Reading »

Natural theology and the gospel

Jenson offers a typically witty and condensed assessment of “natural theology” and its relation to the gospel in his America’s Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwards . The confrontation arises from the basic missionary character of the Christian church. Because it bears . . . . Continue Reading »

Scientific Typology

In his editorial introduction to Sermons and Discourses, 1720-1723 (The Works of Jonathan Edwards Series, Volume 10) (v. 10) (228-30), Wilson Kimnach emphasizes the central importance of typology in Edwards’s thinking. It was not simply a way of harmonizing old and new, but a clue to a . . . . Continue Reading »

Creation and God’s attributes

Bombaro ( Jonathan Edwardss Vision of Reality: The Relationship of God to the World, Redemption History, and the Reprobate , 91-2) quotes these passages from Edwards Micellanies indicating that God would have unrealized attributes if He had not created the world: “There are many of the divine . . . . Continue Reading »

Edwards, Panentheist

1721 was a crucial year not only for Jonathan Edwards’s spiritual formation but for his metaphysics. According to John Bombaro ( Jonathan Edwardss Vision of Reality: The Relationship of God to the World, Redemption History, and the Reprobate , 12), it was from that date that Edwards . . . . Continue Reading »