P.D. James and Modernity

Gerald Bray recently shared this quote from the inimitable P.D. James, and I could not resist posting it here.  P.D. James has written a number of wonderful books, mainly murder mysteries.  Her main protagonist is Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.  This quote is taken from The Book of Common Prayer, ed. Prudence Dailey (Continuum, 2011):

"We live in an age notable for a kind of fashionable silliness and imbued with a restless desire for change. It sometimes seems that nothing old, nothing well-established, nothing which has evolved through centuries of experience and loving use escapes our urge to diminish, revise or abolish it. Above all every organisation has to be relevant - a very fashionable word - to the needs of modern life, as if human beings in the twenty-first century are somehow fundamentally different in their needs and aspirations from all previous generations. A country which ceases to value and learn from its history, neglects its language and literature, despises its traditions and is unified only by a common frenetic drive for getting and spending and for material wealth, will lose more than its nationhood; it will lose its soul. Let us cherish and use what we still precariously hold. Let us strive to ensure that what has been handed down to us is not lost to generations to come."

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Published: 28 September 2011 28 September 2011

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Did the Church Fathers Promote Allegorical Interpretation?

As far as I am concerned, Peter Leithart and Lewis Ayres are two of the sharper tools in the shed.  Both are fine scholars and have done wonderful work.  Leithart reports on a recent conference where Lewis Ayres (of the University of Durham) argued in a paper that the early church fathers were not necessarily being "innovative" when they used allegorical interpretation.  On the contrary, suggests Ayres (and here I am simply relying on Leithart's report), allegorical interpretation was already around.  The early church fathers--against the backrop of widespread allegorical interpretation--actually insisted on more of a "literal" interpretation than was the norm at the time.  I look forward to reading Ayres' paper.  Leithart's post is at his web site here.

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Published: 22 September 2011 22 September 2011

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The Theological Nature of the New Testament

Today in my class, "Doctrine of God", I was trying to communicate with students how the New Testament documents are fundamentally, inherently, and inextricably theological documents.  That is, we don't go to the New Testament, pull out (non-theological) "data", and then try to "get to" theological conclusions.  Rather, the New Testament documents are already theologically-rich and full, and in fact there was already an "apostolic theology" in existence before the emergence of the New Testament that actually gave rise to the New Testament documents.  One student in the class (thanks Jace) took this picture.

To be clear, option (1) is a bit anemic and inadequate, while option (2) is more sound, on my view.

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Published: 14 September 2011 14 September 2011

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C.S. Lewis' Learning in War-Time

An essay I have read over and over is "Learning in War-Time" by C.S. Lewis.  To my mind it is one of the best (brief) statements on the nature of learning I know of.  See the pdf here.

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Published: 22 August 2011 22 August 2011

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