Jenson on election

A couple juicy nuggets from Jenson: “The speaking of the gospel is the event of predestination in that the gospel gives what it speaks about, but this eschatological efficacy of the gospel is the Spirit.  We must parody Barth: the Holy Spirit is the choosing God.” And: . . . . Continue Reading »

Calvin’s New Perspective

My colleague Jayson Grieser points to Calvin’s comments on Psalm 5:8: “The righteousness of God . . . in this passage, as in many others, is to be understood of his faithfulness and mercy which he shows in defending and preserving his people.” . . . . Continue Reading »

Conversion

Gordon T. Smith’s Transforming Conversion: Rethinking the Language and Contours of Christian Initiation is quite satisfying.  He’s got all the right enemies, revivalism in particular, and he wants to sketch out an account of conversion that overcomes all the dualisms that dog the . . . . Continue Reading »

Forgiveness and deliverdict

Justification is (among other things) forgiveness of sins.  Justification “justifies/frees” us from sin.  Are these two equivalent?  What would it mean to say that forgiveness is a deliverance? Forgiveness delivers from future punishment.  Forgiveness thus frees from . . . . Continue Reading »

Clean and Unclean

In his treatise against Faustus the Manichean, Augustine cites 1 Timothy4 in a discussion of clean and unclean foods.  He is trying to demonstrate the harmony of Old and New, and parrying Faustus’ claim that Catholics as much as Manicheans reject the Old Testament.  Augustine . . . . Continue Reading »

Self and Justification

False subjectivity has led to nihilism.  To combat the nihilism of modernity, Levin says that we need to challenge the “timeless” Cartesian self by affirming a “self open to changes in itself; a self which changes in response to changes in the world; a self capable of . . . . Continue Reading »

Faith

Terry Eagleton gives a neat summary of Alain Badiou’s account of faith, an account that seems to me to be quite close to the biblical view of faith in several respects: “ . . . the kind of truth involved in acts of faith is neither independent of propositional truth nor reducible to it. . . . . Continue Reading »

The End of Creation

Jenson commends Jonathan Edwards’ answer to the question about the point of creation.  Reflecting on the fact that the bride is a bringer of “peace” or “completion” to her lover, he asks: “Can God make a whole with creatures, a whole that somehow satisfies . . . . Continue Reading »

Trinitarian justification

In his commentary on the Song of Songs 4, Robert Jenson raises a question about the Bridegroom’s declaration that the Bride is “beautiful” and “without blemish.”  He links this to justification, but then notes the problems that often arise from exclusively . . . . Continue Reading »