May 2011
2 posts
A Question for Students and Scholars
I’ve started a master’s degree in church history, and immediately I’ve been confronted with a technical problem: a proliferation of pdfs. Journal articles, book chapters and papers all delivered to me as pdf’s. This is clearly much better than having stacks of papers littering my office, but still presents and organizational challenge. My question for you fellow...
April 2011
3 posts
“The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because...”
– Dieter Rams (via putthison)
“…Suddenly all of them standing around the gallows know it: he is gone....”
– Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988)
Reposted from TitusOneNine
February 2011
7 posts
“If authors and publishers could ever agree on a ‘Ten Commandments for...”
– “Book Reviews.” JBL 102 (1983): 4
“Faith, hope, and love are three aspects of our patience with God; they are three...”
– Thomas Halik, Patience with God
Christianity Today - "Polling Evangelicals: Cut... →
“The top choices among evangelicals for the chopping block are economic assistance to needy people around the world (56 percent), government assistance for the unemployed (40 percent), and environmental protection (38 percent).”
“If we wish to state who Jesus Christ is, in every separate statement we must...”
– Barth, CD I/2 p133
Wisdom vs. Revelation
I’ve been thinking of ways of knowing and how “christian reasoning” works on a practical level. Here are a couple rough categories that I am working on:
Revelation: knowledge from outside, divine knowledge
Revelation is a knowing that interrupts our knowing, it needs neither logical explanation or “good sense:” Take 300 men and go fight against Midian”...
January 2011
6 posts
Zizek; "Europe must move beyond mere tolerance" →
Zizek understands the political significance of Paul’s comments in Galatians 3 and Colossians 3 better than most Christians, it seems. Unfortunately he hopes for a revolutionary community without Christ.
1 tag
“When I really give anyone my time, I thereby give him the last and most personal...”
– Karl Barth, CD I/2 p.55
Section 14 provides explanation of this statement: “God’s revelation in the event of the presence of Jesus Christ is God’s time for us.” Or, more briefly: “God has time for us.”
So far, a fascinating section. I am looking forward to...
“God reveals Himself. He reveals Himself through Himself. He reveals Himself.”
– CD I/1 296 (Made it to chapter 2! On to the Trinity…) Interesting, in the following footnote, Barth tells us that he originally had followed this sentenceGod reveals Himself. He reveals Himself through Himself. He reveals Himself. CD I/1 296
Interesting, in the following footnote,...
1 tag
Do we care whether Theology is a Science?
I’m just finishing chapter 1 of the Barth’s Dogmatics, and the discussion has looped back to a topic that Barth brought up in the first section of the Introduction: Is Dogmatics a Science? Barth’s argument seems to be that dogmatic theology is indeed a science:
“When the Church puts to itself the question of truth in its threefold form in a way which is objective and...
Money and Morality →
Capitalism is not value neutral, and not in concert with Christian values.
December 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Barth: Delving into the Footnotes
In my reading of Barth, I have skimmed or skipped many of the lengthy footnotes, which is sometimes a mistake, because his footnotes are sometimes the most interesting portion of his text. Far from being an academic in an ivory tower, Barth always has an eye on church practice, especially preaching, and he buries his cultural observations about the church in the footnotes. Like this one about...
A new (old) blog
It’s a strange New Year’s resolution: to blog more. Come to think of it, even New Year’s resolutions are strange. Perhaps that’s grist for some future blogging. Why “to blog more?” Because writing is a discipline, and a worthwhile one. Writing well is kin to thinking well. Writing encourages thinking all the way through the matter. Writing is an...
