Archive for the 'Dogmatics' Category

AAR, Literary Theory and the Bible

Published
by
DWM
on November 8, 2008
in Bulgakov, Culture, Hermeneutics, Literature, Scripture and Theology and other
. 1 Comment

I’m sorry we’ve been so absent lately. I know you miss us, a lot. But we’ve been really busy, and we know you’re a patient folk. Besides, we gave you that lovely Bulgakov Blog conference, and we know you still haven’t read every post yet, and you certainly haven’t read every comment made by your fellow readers. Come now, can’t you make at least one comment yourself?

This would be an excellent opportunity for me to offer my sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to the conference. Whether you made a large or small contribution, we are in your debt for what turned out to be a fascinating and thought provoking event!

In any event, we were busy. I was in Chicago with many of you at AAR. However, Aron seems to have joined that contentious group of protesters who haven’t quite come to terms with the AAR/SBL estrangement. Fear not, they’re getting back together, maybe even by 2011. Aron made up for his absence by attending the Chesterton Conference in Niagra, Ontario. Look for his paper to appear here soon once I steal it from his laptop.

I’ve recently become interested in the Bible again after reading Irenaeus’ Against Heresies and teaching the Revelation unit in my advisor’s Seminarian course a couple times.I’m currently writing a paper on the regula fidei, and at Joshua’s suggestion began reading up on some literary theory, including Northrop Frye (although I wonder what you had in mind when you made that recommendation, JADR). Anyway, I stumbled across this bit in Frye that made me laugh, and for lack of anything substantial to post at the moment, I thought I’d toss this one out there:

It took me some time to hit on the right formula for a course in the Bible. I consulted the curricula of other universities, and found that they gave courses called “The Bible As Literature,” which involved chopping pieces out of the Bible like the book of Job and the parables of Jesus, saying, “Look, aren’t they literary?” that approach violated all my instincts as a critic, because those instincts told me that what a critic does when he is confronted with any verbal document whatever is to start on page one at the upper left-hand corner and god one reading until he reads the bottom right-hand corner of the last page. But many people who have attempted to do that with the Bible have flaked out very quickly, generally somewhere around the middle of Leviticus.

- Northop Frye from Northrop Frye and Jacy McPherson, Biblical and Classical Myths

 

Bulgakov Blog Conference, Day 13

Published
by
DWM
on October 27, 2008
in Bulgakov, Creation, Grace and Nature
. 0 Comments

“A Discussion in Sophiology and Magic:  Renaissance Precursors to Bulgakov” — PART THREE

By Joshua Delpech-Ramey (The Land of Unlikeness)

The question Janet raises about whether Renaissance humanism, as found in Pico and Bruno, is really human enough, is very important to think through in terms of what we could call the application of sophiology in contemporary culture.

Pico’s emphasis on the polyvalent or indeterminate status of the human essence is not so much opposed to the Augustinian duality of divinity/humanity as the defining feature of human life as it is a setting of that duality in an epistemological situation that has complexified.  Augustine was adroitly skeptical about tying theology to the current dogmas of natural inquiry, whether it be inquiry about the difference between animals and humans or about the number of fixed stars or about any other subject of natural knowledge, including Biblical interpretation, where he advised much more caution about fixing the meaning of Biblical sense than future commentators would. Continue reading ‘Bulgakov Blog Conference, Day 13′

Augustine Blog Conference

Published
by
DWM
on August 19, 2008
in Church History, Creation, Mary, Theology and other and philosophy
. 0 Comments

Hey everyone,

Cynthia posted the 7th essay in the Augustine Blog Conference yesterday, entitled “Quando Tu and The Nuptial Creation: St. Augustine’s Enduring Influence on Contemporary Ecclesiology”, written by Mary Moorman, to which I was asked to write a response that will be published on Wednesday, I believe. Please head on over to Per Caritatem and check out the proceedings of this excellent collaborative event.

UPDATE: you can read my commentary here.

Mystery, Gift, and Love

Published
by
DWM
on March 30, 2008
in Grace, Nature, Theology and other and Vatican II
. 3 Comments

Aron made me agree to post my paper before he’d let me put his up. If you haven’t listened to his yet, please do. It’s not only a great introduction to Lacan, but also an interesting theological reflection. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.. or at least, you shouldn’t be.

So, here’s my presentation from this year’s AAR MidAtlantic Regional conference. This is pretty much the same paper that Cynthia posted on Per Caritatem a couple months ago - Thanks again, Cynthia! I had a great response in the Q&A time, but failed to record it. Anyway, let us know what you think about all this podcasting stuff. I’m thinking about getting a better mic than the one that comes with the macbook, but would like to know if this stuff is relevant or even helpful to the lot of you before I invest in it.

Cheers,

Dan

von Balthasar blog conference

Published
by
DWM
on March 18, 2008
in Balthasar, Hermeneutics, Scripture and Systematic Theology
. 0 Comments

David began the von Balthasar blog conference last night over at The Fire and the Rose with the following introduction:

In a world where we are bombarded by seemingly endless amounts of information, I trust this conference will offer something distinct and interesting. While blogs have been disparaged (often rightly) by academics, I hope this experiment demonstrates that theo-blogging can be a place for academically rigorous and theologically sophisticated work. More importantly, in a conference examining the interrelation between theology and exegesis, I hope most of all that these essays provoke us to return to the text anew for a fresh hearing of God’s Word. May we gain a greater appreciation for what von Balthasar accomplished, and, following his example, learn to cultivate a faith that always seeks understanding.

My contribution will be posted tomorrow. In the meantime, definitely head on over and read the inaugural posts, here and here. Lois Miles has a great piece on von Balthasar’s reliance upon the contemplative mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr. The essay gives a nice biography of their relationship, including a bit on the creation of von Speyr’s commentaries on Scripture. Cynthia Nielsen, in her usual exemplary style, helps us understand Balthasar’s insight that aesthetics and hermeneutics can not be separated without comprising the wholeness of the Scripture - “a recovery of theologico-aesthetic sensibilities that had been lost with certain modernist interpretive currents.”

By all means, please engage these authors by commenting. I think this format of blog conference is a unique opportunity for scholars around the globe to extend the theological conversations that just aren’t (unfortunately) getting air time in places like AAR and the like. Additionally, the kind of interaction that has already begun exhibits a kind of charity that is as rare in the larger, more established venues. As David mentions, the blog medium hasn’t garnered the best reputation among the academic elite. Hopefully our fellowship will help change that perception.

The Sacraments and Silence

Published
by
DWM
on November 26, 2007
in Creation and Literature
. 8 Comments

As many of you know, Janet has begun the discussion of S. Endo’s Silence over at deepgraceoftheory. Here at TLOU, we’d like to investigate some of the more technical aspects of the theology behind Silence. So today, through the magic of cut and paste, we’re going to direct your attention to Janet’s and my conversation that we hope to continue here.

First, Janet quotes my early comment, and then responds to it:

“Rather, I think of it like participating in the sacraments. Our relationship to God through the church is starved if we deprive ourselves of the sacraments. Likewise, if we refuse to participate in the world in a way that conforms to our end, we lose something of the sacramentality of being in the world.”

Yes, I agree with you you about this “participation.” I suppose this is why Father Rodrigues was willing to hear Kichijiro’s confession and have him live with him in his little community. Continue reading ‘The Sacraments and Silence’

Sadducees and bad preaching

Published
by
DWM
on November 13, 2007
in Ressurrection
. 1 Comment
Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.

This morning, one of my professors related to the class that in his parish the deacon preached this last sunday. The Gospel, some of you may remember, was from Luke and was the story of the Sadducees posing to Jesus a particularly frightening situation re: Levitical law, but an even more perplexing problem to those who hold to bodily resurrection. Apparently this deacon reads in the passage, and especially in Jesus’ response to the Sadducees, an affirmation that we (Christians, I assume) are not of this world, and b/c we are bound to be like angels in heaven, this world and the corporeal matter not. I got a decidedly different message in my parish. Our sermon told us that the Sadducees were “diet evil” and a rather rambunctious crowd, merely interested in asking Jesus dumb questions like the above. Jesus in this sermon’s telling served a little more than a literary device to offset the Sadducees sophomoric logic. Continue reading ‘Sadducees and bad preaching’

Rahner and de Lubac on the final knowledge of God, pt. 1

Published
by
DWM
on October 14, 2007
in Grace, Nature, Supernatural and Theology and other
. 15 Comments

Here’s one to get the thomists out there involved - you know who you are.1 This week, I’ve had the fun task of analyzing Rahner’s and de Lubac’s positions on the beatific vision and Gaudium et Spes, 22. It’s been interesting to gain a deeper understanding the interpretations of how Christ “fully reveals man to man himself…”2

The whole thing goes back further than Aquinas, even to Augustine in passages like his Letters XCII and CXLVII (De Videndo Deo). The following is from Letter XCII.

And we shall become the more like unto Him, the more we advance in knowledge of Him and in love; because “though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day,”3 yet so as that, however far one may have become advanced in this life, he is far short of that perfection of likeness which is fitted for seeing God, as the apostle says, “face to face.”4

Continue reading ‘Rahner and de Lubac on the final knowledge of God, pt. 1′

  1. no, not you scott. You’re “scotian” or “scotusian”↩
  2. Gaudium et Spes 22↩
  3. II Cor. 4:6↩
  4. I Cor. 8:12↩

Is All We Need LOVE? A prolegomena to future discussions on Love and Being.

Published
by
DWM
on October 1, 2007
in Balthasar, Creation and Film
. 4 Comments

Across the UniverseJulie Taymor’s Across the Universe is an explosion of cultural throwbacks and cinematic contortions, not to mention Beatle’s hit after hit, “like endless rain into a paper cup”. But it’s not simply vintage nostalgia. Buried in the plot is a power struggle between two deep human urges that bears theological fruit in its reflection of Love as a pole averring, mediating factor that ultimately funds the best of human efforts.

Early in the film, Taymor appears to squarely pit social and militant activism and artistic creation against each other, and gives the impression that the infamous Love will side with the latter. It’s only an impression, and one that many on both sides mistakenly take to as the final word for better or ill. On one side, there’s the declaration of fealty to an ambiguous and numinous Love, the great fictional panacea. On the other, there’s the concession that Love is indeed ambiguous, impotent to effect change; the there’s an argument for the need for something else, something more jarring, even violent. And thus we have the polarization of the 60s set before us: the peaceful, inward, even insular arts culture on one side (Woodstock par excellance); and the boisterous and often violent activist movement concomitant and strangely akin to the oft harsh and violent government (Kent State/Vietnam). And then, in wake of this “revolution” there’s the late 70s and 80s, perceived by many, and certainly portrayed in the film, as the waning of Love and meaning - “You know, it’s gonna be alright, yeah”. Continue reading ‘Is All We Need LOVE? A prolegomena to future discussions on Love and Being.’

Cosmic Aesthetics: Begbie, von Balthasar, and some musings on modernity’s implications for theological aesthetics

Published
by
DWM
on September 7, 2007
in Art, Balthasar, Creation, Creativity, Music, Nature, Supernatural and Theology and other
. 12 Comments

If the Enlightenment and subsequent periods of modernity have done anything to alter what it means to be human, they have set humanity at a distance from the world, positing a radical degree of separation between the created order and Aristotle’s rational animals. Where God factors into this rift, and how one structures the dialogue between Philosophy and Theology, depends largely on how one schematizes God in relation to Being. It was Hans Urs von Balthasar who adroitly drew out the ramification of the human mind’s prodigality when he said, “[T]he human person himself would stand as the synthetic element, not only between [Church and world/Faith and Reason], but secretly above both.”1

Continue reading ‘Cosmic Aesthetics: Begbie, von Balthasar, and some musings on modernity’s implications for theological aesthetics’

  1. HUVB, “On the Task of Catholic Philosophy in Our Time,” Communio 20 (1993): 148; although von Balthasar was not the first or last to issue this warning.↩