Rosenstock (Judaism Despite Christianity: The 1916 Wartime Correspondence Between Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and Franz Rosenzweig, 127-8) objects to Rosenzweig’s characterization of church history as a move from the church of the spirit to the church of dogma and tradition. Rosenstock thinks the . . . . Continue Reading »
Rosenzweig locates a fundamental similarity between Judaism and Christianity in their mutual affirmation of protology and eschatology, which give form and meaning to the “middle things” that occur between A and B - that is, the middle things of world history. Rosenstock objects that the . . . . Continue Reading »
Some months ago, I wrote a brief piece on the “tragedy” of conversion.I used the word “tragedy” in the sense I develop in Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, & Hope In Western Literature. The word describes a conception of history and metaphysics in which the original is by . . . . Continue Reading »
When Peter comes to the door of the house where the disciples are praying for him, they think it’s Peter’s “angel” (Acts 12:15). The thing at the door is recognizably Peter, but they don’t think it’s Peter in the flesh. It’s still the person, but not the . . . . Continue Reading »
Cyril O’Regan (Theology and the Spaces of Apocalyptic, 60)summarizes Bulgakov’s cautions about turning justice into the master theme of Christian witness. Bulgakov is “sensitive to the horrors that have been committed in the name of justice throughout history and proximally in the . . . . Continue Reading »
Throughout the 40s of Isaiah, Yahweh promises to do something unprecedented, something new, for Israel. He will bring them from bondage - but he’s done that before. This time, he will bring them back by using Gentiles as agents of Israel’s liberation. That’s a new thing, better . . . . Continue Reading »
William Temple emphasizes in Christianity and Social Orderthat we are constituted in relationship:“this social nature of man is fundamentalto his being. I am not first some one on my own account who happensto be the child of my parents, a citizen oi Great Britain, and so forth. Ifyou take all . . . . Continue Reading »
Good kings should imitate Constantine by preserving true religion and suppressing heresy and schism, argues Jacques Bossuet in his 1679 treatise on Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture(206).Heresy and schism are easy to identify, he thinks. Antiquity is the mark of true religion, . . . . Continue Reading »
CS Lewis insists in The Problem of Painthat not only is love not mere kindness, but that kindness is “the opposite pole from love.”Kindness “cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, provided only that it escapes suffering.” Love, by contrast, “demands the . . . . Continue Reading »
Wolterstorff points out (Justice in Love, 71-2) that in Niebuhr’s thought “conflict among self-interested parties was always up front . . . when he thought about justice.” Conflict is the clue that one should “go with justice rather than love” because “lovee is . . . . Continue Reading »
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