Posted in Aquinas, Bible, Mind/Body, Sacramentology, philosophy, tagged Wright, baptism, metaphysics, forms, leithart, 1 Corinthians on July 11, 2008 | No Comments »
Peter Leithart and others have noted the post-modern phenomenon of what I shall call the impenetrable ego. In his book on baptism Leithart notes that the idea that the ritual actually affects the person (socially, psychologically, ontologically) seems eerie because we have this idea that “who I am is deep down inside and cannot be touched by [...]
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Posted in Anselm, Aquinas, Bible, History, Mind/Body, metaphor, philosophy, tagged epistemology, skepticism, aristotle, metaphysics, forms, realism, nominalism, John on July 10, 2008 | No Comments »
The whole realist/nominalist argument among the Medieval philosophers often seems arcane and pedantic to us post-moderns. I mean, who cares if the form is in the thing or somewhere else? The whole idea of a form in things is way too “spooky.” Reality is given to us; we don’t need forms right? Well, without answering [...]
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Posted in Aquinas, Bible, Mind/Body, philosophy, tagged epistemology, apologetics, reason/revelation, Medieval, autonomy, contra Gentiles on July 9, 2008 | No Comments »
Rudi Te Velde says that Aquinas did not write the Summa contra Gentiles as a missionary manual for Dominicans to evangelize the Muslims. This timeless work was written to refute certain errors that had come to light in the Medieval context. These errors go beyond that of the Muslim faith.
The list of errors is not restricted to contemporary [...]
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I don’t think it is autonomous rationalism to begin one’s apologetics with theological proofs. The whole point of beginning with reason is not to start from a neutral ground where all facts are brute facts and everyone agrees that religion is not an issue. The point of beginning with reason is to demonstrate the necessity [...]
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Any attempt to present him [Thomas] as an ‘essentialist, that is, as being conscious of and as affirming first of all the common divine essence, and only secondarily the Persons in that essence, would be to betray the balance of his theology. Such an interpretation should no longer be possible since the appearance of the [...]
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Roger Olson is one among many scholars who follow in line with Karl Barth’s critique of Medieval (particularly St. Thomas) concepts of natural theology and their effect on the doctrine of God. Olson notes that Thomas’s “portrait of God seems quite foreign to the God of the scriptural narrative, who genuinely grieves and sorrows and [...]
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Commenting on Hebrews 11:3 St. Thomas notes:
… it must be known that the Word of God is the very concept of God, by which He understands Himself and other things. We see this when an artisan, producing something outside himself, makes it unto the likeness of his concept …. Since the whole creation is perfectly [...]
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Solomon prays to YHWH in his dedication of the Temple: ”Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.” (1 Kings 8:32)
Sometimes I can see where N.T. Wright is coming from. Only [...]
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Ronald Wallace notes that the response of the believing individual to the Church is seen by Calvin as identical to responding to Christ. This is affirmed by Calvin in his Commentary on Isaiah 45:14:
When he says that the Israelites shall be victorious over all the nations, this depends on the mutual relation between the [...]
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Posted in Bible, Soteriology, tagged luke, typology, amos on April 28, 2008 | No Comments »
As was implied by the last post of this title the story of Jesus calling Zacchaeus from a tree symbolizes the fruit of the Kingdom being brought in. The following passage only helps to confirm this symbolism:
And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, [...]
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