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In Mary's song of praise and peace
2006-12-17 22:34:01
by Kim Fabricius(Tune: University)In Mary ?s song of praise and peace    we call ?Magnificat,?a peasant maiden mocked the claims    of earth?s proud plutocrats.An angel whispered, ?You?re the one    who?ll carry heaven?s child.?The girl, in fearful faith, said ?Yes!?    but barely forced a smile.She went to see a kindred soul,    who praised what God would do;yet Mary felt a deep unease    about the coming coup.But then she paused and prayed and thought,    ?Why am I full of doubt?The Lord is good, I?ll trust his ways,    though they seem roundabout.?Her heart welled up, it overflowed    with firm, determined joy,because the Lord would save the world    through such a subtle ploy.?The poor will eat, parade the streets,?    she sang, ?and bands will play;the pity is, w...
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What is hell?
2006-12-16 04:31:01
?Hell is the name of that false history against which the true story, in Christ, is told, and it is exposed as the true destination of all our violence, by the light of the resurrection, even as Christ breaks open the gates of hell and death. Hell is with us at all times, a phantom kingdom perpetuating itself in the wastes of sinful hearts, but only becomes visible to us as hell because the true kingdom has shed its light upon history?.?Hell is the perfect concretization of ethical freedom, perfect justice without delight, the soul?s work of legislation for itself, where ethics has achieved its final independence from aesthetics. Absolute subjective liberty is known only in hell?. [H]ell is the purest interiority?. [I]t is a turning in, a fabrication of an inward depth, a shadow, a privation, a loss of the whole outer world, a refusal of the surface?.?[H]ell is no place within creation, no event, though its history is everywhere told, its dominion everywhere suffered.??David Bentley...
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The hermeneutics of jazz
2006-12-16 04:31:01
Some nice discussion of theology and jazz at Per Caritatem and Robertson House Collection.
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Theology with Terry Eagleton
2006-12-15 10:29:01
There are some really superb theological insights in Terry Eagle ton?s much-discussed review of Richard Dawkins. Here?s a passage that?s well worth reflecting on:?Jesus hung out with whores and social outcasts, was remarkably casual about sex, disapproved of the family (the suburban Dawkins is a trifle queasy about this), urged us to be laid-back about property and possessions, warned his followers that they too would die violently, and insisted that the truth kills and divides as well as liberates. He also cursed self-righteous prigs and deeply alarmed the ruling class.?The Christian faith holds that those who are able to look on the crucifixion and live, to accept that the traumatic truth of human history is a tortured body, might just have a chance of new life ? but only by virtue of an unimaginable transformation in our currently dire condition. This is known as the resurrection. Those who don?t see this dreadful image of a mutilated innocent as the truth of history are likely to...
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A note on Eberhard Jüngel
2006-12-14 22:28:01
According to this news report, Eberhard Schmidt-Aßmann will succeed Eberhard Jüngel as the new director of the Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft (FEST). Jüngel, who turned 72 last week, had been directing this Heidelberg research centre since his retirement in 2003.And speaking of Jüngel, this new book by Christopher Holmes sounds interesting ? a study representing three theological generations: Barth, Jüngel and Krötke.
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Theology for beginners (22): Glorification
2006-12-13 10:26:01
This is the final part of the series: the whole series is here.Summary: At the End, God deifies all creatures by raising them up to participate in the movement of his own life; thus we are summoned to join with all creatures in the harmonious symphony of God?s triune love.The goal that awaits us all is participation in God. Our stories are lifted up and integrated into the story of God?s own identity. This is precisely what ?salvation? means. Our little stories are broken and fragmented, but God heals them and makes them whole. Our stories are without meaning, without narrative closure, but God completes them, so that our lives are flooded with the radiance of his own truth, his own meaning, his own reality.The integration of our stories in the story of God may thus be described as our ?deification.? In Jesus, God becomes one with us so that we can be one with him. This does not mean, of course, that God erases the distinction between himself and his creatures. It does not mean that...
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God's Yes in the No of the cross
2006-12-13 04:25:03
?Although the Crucified One is abandoned by people and by God , he is nevertheless not isolated or turned away from God and the world. On the contrary, in this death God and humanity are involved together in a singular way, as God?s Yes is hidden under his No to the sinner.... Therefore the death of the Crucified One in abandonedness is not only his own death, but also the death of God and the death of all.??Gerhard Ebeling, Dogmatik des christlichen Glaubens, Vol. 2 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1982), p. 202.
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An all-star cast
2006-12-12 10:23:01
Douglas Knight alerts us to a new international conference: Orthodox Readings of Augustine at Fordham, NY, 14-16 June 2007.The conference is organised by Aristotle Papanikolaou, and it has an extraordinary line-up of speakers:Andrew LouthLewis AyresJohn BehrDavid BradshawBrian Daley, S.J.Elizabeth FisherCarol HarrisonDavid Bentley HartJoseph Lienhard, S.J.Jean-Luc MarionJohn McGuckinJohn MilbankDavid Tracy
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The goodness of God
2006-12-12 10:23:01
for Byron?Jesus Christ means: God , not against the human, or ? which would be even worse ? without him, but God with him and for him as his Friend and Helper and Saviour and Guarantor. Jesus Christ means: God himself becomes the human?s Neighbour and Brother?. Jesus Christ is in person the faithfulness of God which draws near to the human?s unfaithfulness and overpowers it, as God the creator not only confirms and maintains his covenant with his creature but once and for all leads it to its goal and secures it against every threat. Jesus Christ is the reconciliation of the world to God which does not merely look and go beyond human sin but sets it aside?. He is the kingdom of God which with its comfort and healing has approached and invaded torn humanity suffering from a thousand wounds, and put an end to its misery?. In a word: he is the goodness of God.??Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/3, pp. 798-99 (KD IV/3, pp. 913-14).
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New theology blogs
2006-12-11 16:22:01
These days, there are too many new theology blogs to keep up with. But here are two really good ones that I?ve noticed:Intellectus FideiRobertson House Collection
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Karl Barth: God in Action
2006-12-11 04:21:02
Karl Bart h , God in Action : Theological Addresses (1936; Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2005), 143 pp.The other day I mentioned the series of Barth reprints published by Wipf & Stock. Here?s another very nice one: God in Action. This volume offers several of Barth?s theological addresses, all of them first published as individual pamphlets in the Theologische Existenz Heute series during the early 1930s. The addresses were collected in an attempt to give an overall impression of the emerging shape of Barth?s theological work. Underlying all the addresses is an ecclesiological emphasis: thus there are chapters on revelation, the church, theology as a function of the church, the ministry of the Word of God, and the Christian as witness.The best part of the book is Chapter 2, simply entitled ?Theology.? Here, as in the Church Dogmatics, Barth describes theology as ?the fairest? of all the sciences, and as the science ?closest to human reality? (p. 39). As an academic discipline, theology ?is...
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Benjamin Myers: publications
2006-12-09 10:19:01
BooksMilton?s Theology of Freedom. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006. ISBN 3110189380. xiv + 210 pp.Journal Articles?Faith as Self-Understanding: An Appreciation of Rudolf Bultmann,? forthcoming in International Journal of Systematic Theology(with Ross H. McKenzie) ?Dialectical Critical Realism in Science and Theology: Quantum Physics and Karl Barth,? forthcoming in Science and Christian Belief?The Stratification of Knowledge in the Thought of T. F. Torrance,? forthcoming in Scottish Journal of Theology?The Task and Theme of Theology: Five Theses,? forthcoming in Reformed Theological Review?Predestination and Freedom in Milton?s Paradise Lost,? Scottish Journal of Theology 59:1 (2006), 64-80?Prevenient Grace and Conversion in Paradise Lost,? Milton Quarterly 40:1 (2006), 22-39?Milton?s Paradise Lost, Book 11,? The Explicator 64:1 (2005), 14-17?Alister McGrath?s Scientific Theology,? Reformed Theological Review 64:1 (2005), 15-34?Theologia Evangelii: Peter Jensen?s Theological Method,?...
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My research
2006-12-09 10:19:01
I occasionally get queries from readers who want to know about my own research and publications. So I?ve just created this new page with details about my recent and forthcoming publications.
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Hans Küng's peace prize
2006-12-09 10:19:01
As Chris Tilling notes, the great Catholic theologian Hans Küng has been awarded the Lew Kopelew Prize for his ?tireless efforts towards a better understanding between the world?s great religions.? The prize is awarded for contributions to peace and human rights.
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Karl Barth: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2006-12-08 22:18:01
For the past few years, Wipf & Stock Publishers have been producing attractive, affordable reprints of various out-of-print volumes by Karl Barth . They kindly sent me a couple of these reprints, one of which is:Karl Barth, Wolf gang Amadeus Mozart, foreword by John Updike, with a new foreword by Paul Louis Metzger (1986; Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2003), 60 pp.Barth?s devotion to Mozart is well known. He began each day listening to Mozart; he included Mozart in the Church Dogmatics; and he remarked: ?if I ever get to heaven, I would first of all seek out Mozart and only then inquire after Augustine, St Thomas, Luther, Calvin, and Schleiermacher? (p. 16). In fact, towards the end of his life Barth even experienced his first and only mystical vision: a vision of Mozart gazing at him benignly from the stage during a concert. (Hans Urs von Balthasar was very impressed by this vision!)In this little book ? originally published in 1956 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Mozart?s birth ?...
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Weblog awards: cast your vote!
2006-12-08 22:18:01
Faith & Theology has been nominated for the ?Best Educational Blog ? award in the 2006 Weblog Awards . If you?d like to vote, just click this logo and you?ll be taken to the voting page:
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John Milton on the calling of the disabled
2006-12-07 04:15:02
England?s greatest poet, John Milton, suffered from glaucoma, which led to his total blindness by the age of 43. In one of his sonnets (Sonnet XIX), Milton struggled to come to terms with his blindness in relation to his profound sense of personal vocation. He believed God had called him to be England?s poet and prophet: but what would become of this vocation now that he was blind?When I consider how my light is spent,Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,And that one Talent which is death to hide,Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bentTo serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest He returning chide,?Doth God exact day-labour, light denied??I fondly ask. But Patience, to preventThat murmur, soon replies, ?God doth not needEither man?s work or his own gifts. Who bestBear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His stateIs kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,And post o?er land and ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait.?In this sonne...
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Mozart: the triumph of genius
2006-12-07 04:15:02
Jon Pott, Editor-in-Chief of Eerdmans Publishing, has written a lovely essay about the genius of Moza rt :?No composer on earth has inspired more talk about heaven than Mozart. One of his celebrated 20th-century biographers, Alfred Einstein, managed to call him a mere ?visitor on earth,? and even Shaw, not a reverent man, opined that the two priestly arias of Sarastro in The Magic Flute were the only music yet written that would not sound out of place in the mouth of God. Whatever the divinizing excesses of such language, Mozart has probably received more attention from theologians than any other composer save Bach.?
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The vocation of people with severe disabilities
2006-12-06 10:14:01
Last night Kim Fabricius went to hear a lecture by the excellent scholar Frances Young. Professor Young has a severely disabled son, and her lecture was on ?The Vocation of People with Severe Learning Disabilities.? Kim gave a response afterwards, which he has posted here ? he says:Against conventional theodicies, and above all against a culture that has lost its way ? where its answer to the question, ?What are people for?? is, ?For autonomy and control, for health and beauty, for performance and productivity? ? Professor Young has lodged a considerable critique. Human beings, she says, are made for friendship, and human communities are made for hospitality. And it would seem to be the vocation of so-called disabled people to take this gospel to so-called independent, fit, and achieving folk.It is not, observe, a question of the abled bringing help to the disabled ? just the reverse: the disabled are the ones who bring help to the abled by showing that we are all, one way or anothe...
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Jean-Luc Marion
2006-12-06 10:14:01
At Per Caritatem, Cynthia is posting an excellent guest-series by Derek Morrow on Jean -Luc Mari o n.
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Book reviews
2006-12-05 16:12:02
In response to a reader?s request, here?s a list of links to recent Faith & Theology book reviews. I?ll add this post to the sidebar as well, and I?ll try to remember to update it as new reviews are posted.Anderson, Ray S. An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches (IVP, 2006)Chalamet, Christophe. Dialectical Theologians: Wilhelm Herrmann, Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann (TVZ, 2005)Clough, David. Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth?s Ethics (Ashgate, 2005)DeHart, Paul J. The Trial of the Witnesses: The Rise and Decline of Postliberal Theology (Blackwell, 2006)Jenson, Robert W. and Solveig Lucia Gold. Conversations with Poppi about God: An Eight-Year-Old and Her Theologian Grandfather Trade Questions (Brazos Press, 2006)McDougall, Joy Ann. Pilgrimage of Love: Moltmann on the Trinity and Christian Life (Oxford University Press, 2005)McGrath, Alister. Thomas F. Torrance: An Intellectual Biography (T&T Clark, 1999)Metzger, Paul Louis. Trinitarian Soundings in Systematic Theology (T&...
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The drama of liturgy
2006-12-05 04:11:01
?A liturgy, whether long or short, complicated or simple, either hangs together as a dramatic performance or has no coherence at all. Lamentably, the latter is very much the state of much of what one experiences in contemporary pews. I do not know if the sheer miscellaneous character of our would-be liturgies is a reason why people decreasingly attend them, but it would be a reason why I did not, were I not driven by fear of divine retribution....?Those who stay away and the congregations who try to attract them agree in one perception: nothing much happens in our churches of a Sunday morning. But what is supposed to happen? I suggest that much of our difficulty is that we have forgotten that the Christ-drama is supposed to happen, in whatever high, low or intermediate sort of production.??Robert W. Jenson, ?Christ as Culture 3: Christ as Dram a ,? International Journal of Systematic Theology 6:2 (2004), pp. 199-200.
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Podcast: Advent Sunday with Bob Dylan
2006-12-03 10:08:03
In celebration of Advent Sunday , I?ve been listening to Bob Dylan ?s extraordinary gospel song, ?When He Returns? (1979):?Of every earthly plan that be known to man,He is unconcerned.He?s got plans of His own, to set up His throneWhen He returns.?So why don?t you join me? Kick back and listen to this moving live performance ? an unofficial recording from 16 November 1979. To listen, click here; or to get the podcast feed, click here.
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An even worse liturgical invention
2006-12-02 16:06:02
A while back we were all discussing the worst liturgical invention. But my wife has now come across one that?s hard to beat. On the weekend she visited a large church, and the church?s newsletter included the following announcement:Water baptisms: held the last Sunday of every month.Baptism in the Holy Spirit: held the second Sunday of every month.One cannot even parody such an announcement, since it is already its own parody. Anyway, my own suggestion was that they should also schedule regeneration for Tuesday evenings and sanctification for the third Friday of every month.
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Theology for beginners (21): Completion
2006-12-02 16:06:02
Summary: At the End, our broken stories are lifted up and integrated into the story of Jesus? death and resurrection, and we are thus included in the story of God?s deity.Throughout this series, we have been speaking (or rather trying to speak) of Christian faith from the perspective of the gospel. The gospel narrates certain events as the happening of God?s own deity. A certain Jewish man is crucified outside Jerusalem and is raised to new life ? this is the event of God?s deity, the event in which God identifies himself, the event in which God is God. In speaking of various main themes, therefore ? God, creation, salvation and community ? we have tried to take our bearings from this event, so that our talk about God is guided not by any prior conceptions of what a ?divine being? should be like, but by God?s own self-definition in the story of Jesus.In turning now to our final theme ? traditionally called ?eschatology? or ?last things? ? we are really not taking up a new topic, but...
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Quiz
2006-12-02 16:06:02
It looks as though Kim (?Kim Fantabulous?) and I (?Been Mires?) both feature in this humorous new quiz: Which blogger are you?
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Biblical Studies Carnival XII
2006-12-02 16:06:02
Jim West has done a swell job on the latest Biblical Studies Carnival . And no one who knows Jim will be surprised to hear that he even found a way to include Zwingli!
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Michael Pomazansky: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology
2006-12-02 16:06:02
Michael Pomazansky, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology : A Concise Exposition, 3rd edition (Platina: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2005), 434 pp. (with thanks to the publishers for a review copy).Michael Pomazansky?s Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (available now in a third edition with extensive new footnotes) has long been a significant textbook of conservative Orthodox theology. Pomazansky was born in western Russia in 1888, and he studied at the pre-revolutionary Kiev Theological Academy from 1908 to 1912. He served as a theologian and missionary in Russia and then, after the revolution, as a priest and editor in Poland and Germany. In 1949 he moved to the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, where he remained until his death in 1988 (just days before his 100th birthday!).For Western Christians, encounters with Orthodoxy can be a bewildering experience. As Georges Florovsky once remarked, while Catholics and Protestants speak a similar language, there is fundamentally no ?commo...
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Reading Paul Tillich
2006-12-02 16:06:02
The indefatigable Patrik has now completed his vast 36-part series on Paul Tillich?s systematic theology. Be sure to check out this excellent series ? and then take that dusty old copy of Tillich down from the shelf and read a little.
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Pannenberg's eschatological ontology
2006-12-02 16:06:02
One of Wolfhart Pannenberg?s most fascinating and controversial ideas is his eschatological ontology. For Pannenberg, the being or essence of a thing is determined by its future. The future exercises a ?retroactive? (rückwirkend) causality on the present ? and so a thing can possess its essence here and now only by anticipating what it will be in the future.This is admittedly a very complex cluster of ideas. But in his important book on Metaphysics and the Idea of God, Pannenberg explains all this with a very helpful illustration taken from his home garden (apparently he is quite an avid gardener). His illustration focuses on the pretty zinnia:?A zinnia is already a zinnia as a cutting and remains one during the entire process of its growth up to blossoming, even though the flower bears its name on account of its blossom. If there were only a single such flower, we could not determine its nature in advance; and yet over the period of its growth it would still be what it revealed its...
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