In Problemata I, the question is raised, “Is there a teleological suspension of the ethical?” Johannes responds by stating that if the ethical is the highest to which one can aim, then Hegel is right in his qualification of the individual as a “moral form of evil” which must be “annulled in the teleology of [...]

Ironically, in Fear and Trembling, Johannes, who claims to be neither a philosopher, nor a “knight of faith” speaks rather profusely about his view of faith and philosophy. According to Silentio, people in his day were approaching faith in an arrogant way, assuming that it was merely something easily attained. That which both ancient and [...]

As I’ve been reading through the Gospel of John and Ridderbos’ commentary, I recently came across John 1:9, where we read, “Ην το φως το αληθινον, ο φωτιζει ανθρωπον, ερχομενον εις τον κοσμον” (“The true light, which illumines all human beings, was coming into the world”). As Ridderbos points out, “true” highlights that which [...]

Søren Kierkegaard is well known for his use of pseudonyms; however, his purpose in utilizing this literary device is often overlooked and has resulted in wrongly attributed views to Kierkegaard that he himself would reject. In various texts, Kierkegaard expressed his view that an author’s personal experience is only properly manifest in his works in [...]

NINTH ANNUAL STUDENT CONFERENCE“The True, The Good, and The Beautiful”
Hosted by the Paideia College Society, the University Honors Program, and the DBU Music Department
February 24-25, 2006
Keynote Speaker: Dr. William EdgarDr. Edgar is a modern day Renaissance man—a true man of the arts and letters. Much of his work has been to connect objective theological [...]

Below are selections from my review of Louis Dupré’s, The Enlightenment and the Intellectual Foundations of Modern Culture. If you are interested in reading the “full” review, just click on the link above. (In light of the recent Schuld posts, I thought that Dupré’s take on the differences between ancient and modern autobiographies might stir [...]

I recently came across this and had to share it. Absolutely hilarious!
*******Dear Doctor Rude,
I think I understand what a “platonic kiss” is, but could you explain to me the difference between the following kisses?
Aristotelian kiss Hegelian kiss Wittgensteinian kiss Gödelian kiss
Signed, Flummoxed in Florida
Dear Flummoxed,
That’s a very good question; nowadays [...]

The Westminster tradition makes a distinction between “self-evident” and “self-attesting” or “self-authenticating” (autopiston; see Calvin’s Institutes, I.vii.5) and claims that Scripture is “self-attesting.” For example, the Westminster Confession of Faith 1.4 reads,
“The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man, or [...]

I recently purchased Herman Ridderbos’, The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary, and must say that thus far it is excellent. In an introductory section entitled, “History and Revelation,” Ridderbos discusses critical views that reject not only the Johannine authorship, but also the historical character of Jesus described in the fourth gospel. E.g., having decided [...]

[Though this will probably get me the label of another “f” word (i.e., my upcoming paper at Notre Dame likely being the first “f” denomination, viz., some kind of “fideist,” I decided to post it anyway in light of a few recent emails off-blog].
Of the many postmodern readings vying for our attention these days, certain [...]

This is my last post from Schuld’s excellent book, Foucault and Augustine: Reconsidering Love and Power. In this installment, I focus mainly on selected passages centered on Foucault’s interpretations of infirmity and healing.
Interpretations of “infirmity” in sanctioning cultural responses to human differences, deviations, and imperfections
Foucault is aware of a shift of governing metaphors, [...]

Today I experienced great joy in taking in an excellent sermon by Dr. Skip Ryan on (among other things) the Reformed view of Christian calling. The text was Luke 1:1-11 where we encounter the interchange between Simon Peter and our Lord on the topic of “catching fish.” As Dr. Ryan pointed out, fishing was Peter’s [...]

Before discussing Foucault’s interpretations of “confession,” Schuld notes that Foucault’s work as a historian has been criticized, and his investigation of early Christian culture is both limited and lopsided. However, for our present purposes, we will “look for his broader strokes that give shape to a central modern transformation that has great import for [...]

[Schuld selections: part III]
Both Foucault and Augustine understand that the “search for knowledge, truth, and ultimate fulfillment orients all of one’s relations” (131). Likewise, both discern “that the truths we pursue and the perfection and happiness we anticipate” involve costs (131).
As Schuld points out, Foucault writes in a human-centered, rather than [...]

[Additional selections from chapter 4 of Joyce Schuld's, Foucault and Augustine: Reconsidering Love and Power]
Foucault, as well as Augustine, stresses human finitude, making the reader aware of the “ever-shifting ground of contingencies on which they build expectations of certitude and perfection” (125). Likewise, Foucault attacks the “myth of personhood as self-originating being” by [...]

The selections below are taken from chapter 4 of Joyce Schuld’s, Augustine and Foucault: Reconsidering Love and Power. For some reason Schuld’s clever description of Augustine as an “anti-heroic” model recently came to mind, so I decided to review some of my reading notes from her book. In a section entitled, “The [...]

Have you ever had one of those days when the dissonance of the “already-not-yet-ness” of your struggle with sin just doesn’t want to resolve?
When I reflect on the concept of sin and my sin in particular, what seems to constantly come to the surface is a kind of fundamental irrationality. When I [...]

Originally, “biblical theology” (BT) was an answer to the “prejudiced” use of the Bible in dogmatics. BT’s reaction to systematics was to read the Old Testament descriptively rather than prescriptively (N.b., Vanhoozer seems to rightly question this claim. In other words, are biblical theologians somehow “unbiased” or more “objective” than systematicians? The claim seems to [...]

Since at least one person wrote me and expressed an interest in this, I decided to post it. (There is also a very selfish reason for the post, viz., this is a section taken from a paper that I will be presenting at Notre Dame in April, and I want to “work out the kinks” [...]