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 »
Bede ( Bede: On the Temple (Liverpool University Press - Translated Texts for Historians) ) knows that the temple is a type of Christ, and a type of the church. But he doesn’t stop with that generic identification. Specific details of the temple construction foreshadow specific features of . . . . Continue Reading »
I prognosticate about the future of the church in the city at Firstthings.com today. . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Notes on the Apocalypse (in Apocalyptic Writings (The Works of Jonathan Edwards Series, Volume 5) (v. 5) , 131-2), Edwards offers this lovely typological meditation on the marriage of Isaac, into which he weaves a meditation on the role of the ministry in adorning Christ’s bride: . . . . Continue Reading »
Christ is the new creation. In Him, the church is the new creation. To wit: She is light in the world. Day 1. She is the firmanent boundary and mediator between heaven and earth. Day 2. She is the fruitful land in the midst of the sea, the place where land and sea, Jew and Gentile, meet. Day 3. She . . . . Continue Reading »
In The Marrow of Theology , William Ames describes the relationship between Christ and the Church: “The relationship is so intimate that not only is Christ the church’s and the church Christ’s, Song of Sol 2:16, but Christ is in the church and the church in him, John 15:4; 1 John . . . . Continue Reading »
According to the standard story, Catholicism made its peace with democracy rather suddenly in the first half of the twentieth century, culminating in Vatican II. On this narrative, Vatican I represented the kind of authoritarianism that the second Vatican council overturned. Not so, argues Emile . . . . Continue Reading »
Benedict XVI’s God’s Word: Scripture, Tradition, Office has some very good things to say, and some very questionable things. The good first. Christ, he emphasizes, is revelation, and the presence of revelation is the presence of Christ. Scripture presents this presence in two ways. . . . . Continue Reading »
Machen was not one to pussyfoot about theological differences. But he also recognized the chasm that lay between Catholoicism and Protestant liberalism ( Christianity and Liberalism ): “Far more serious still is the division between the Church of Rome and evangelical Protestantism in all its . . . . Continue Reading »
Revelation loomed large in the political conflicts of seventeenth-century England. On every side, the images of whore and bride were deployed to defend one church and condemn another. Una and Duessa in Spenser are one version of this battle. According to Esther Richey’s The Politics of . . . . Continue Reading »
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