May 04 2010
My priest on theosis
Read it here.
Archive for the tag 'Theology'
Feb 23 2010
N.T. Wright on scriptural authority
I’m still working my way through it, but this essay by N.T. Wright on scriptural authority is so good I’m having trouble deciding what to excerpt for you. But here is an exceptionally good (and rather large) nugget: Let me offer you a possible model, which is not in fact simply an illustration but actually [...]
Jan 25 2010
Erudition on the Subject of Scripture and Tradition in the West
… can be found here.  I was struck by the author’s point that both Protestantism’s Sola Scriptura and modern Catholicism’s (post-Newman) doctrinal development denies the material sufficiency of the early and medieval church’s understanding of tradition. Lane is saying that with Cardinal Henry Newman’s idea of the development of doctrine, tradition itself becomes materially insufficient because a [...]
Jan 18 2010
Sin and Justification
Reading this: The piety and devotion of Augustine is largely unquestioned by Orthodox theologians, but his conclusions on the Atonement are (Romanides, 2002). Augustine, by his own admission, did not properly learn to read Greek and this was a liability for him. He seems to have relied mostly on Latin translations of Greek texts (Augustine, [...]
Nov 22 2009
Thoughts on Sacred Tradition and the Divine Voice
The alleged clash of authority between Tradition and Scripture is the primary epistemological issue between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Â For Protestants, the Scriptures and Tradition are identifiable. Â For Roman Catholics, the Scriptures and Tradition are different. Â For Roman Catholics, the issue is “Who has authority to interpret the Word of God?” Â For Protestants, the issue [...]
Oct 19 2009
Christology
For an excellent summation of the orthodox Christian explanation of Christology, I highly recommend this piece at philorthodox.
Oct 14 2009
Beauty as a Signpost
A combination of things has had me thinking about aesthetics and beauty of late. First was my summer obsession (which has only been sidelined until I finish the two 50-page papers I’ve to do before January) with the relationship between musical aesthetics and theology. Then, more recently, I had a late night discussion with Nathan [...]
Sep 27 2009
Ratzinger channels Bloom
Take Allan Bloom’s analysis of modern music, dip it in Christianity, and enjoy: We can recall the Dionysiac type of religion and its music, which Plato discussed on the basis of his religious and philosophical views. In many forms of religion, music is associated with frenzy and ecstasy. The free expansion of human existence, toward [...]
Aug 25 2009
A Secular Faith
After a stint in the Levant, I finally determined on a subject for my M.A. thesis. The point will be about the indispensible contribution that religious liberty makes to democratic institutions, and in particular, that the political settlement of religious pluralism is a prerequisite to secular polity, which makes felicitous soil for democratic regimes. The [...]
Jul 23 2009
Apostolic Conservatism
As I was reading Daniel Larison’s taking-to-the-woodshed of Peter Lawler this morning, it reminded me of this bit of hilarity, which actually points to a bigger problem: what on earth are we talking about? There has been so much parsing and refining and narrowing and nichefication of conservatism going on this summer, I think we [...]
(CC) 2010