Norman Kretzman, in his article, “Abraham, Isaac, and Euthyphro: God and the Basis of Morality,” discusses the relationship between God and morality. More specifically, Kretzman wants to answer the question, “just what is involved in God’s establishing of moral principles?”[1] Kretzman quickly qualifies his purpose in footnote 1 by stating that his inquiry might be [...]

In his book, Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society, Merold Westphal juxtaposes two passages from Kant and Barth that point up significant differences in each thinker’s worldview and then creates a picture of a Kantian and Barthian Job—the latter being clearly preferred and for good reasons. [The Barth quote strikes me as having strong Marion-sounding [...]

In preparation for my lecture on Parmenides, I read a number of different interpretations of his poem, On Nature, and his philosophy as a whole. I found the following passage from D.W. Hamlyn both interesting and telling, especially in light of my convinction that human beings are and have always been dependent upon and in [...]

In a section called “Embodiment” found in chapter 8 of his book, Theology, Music and Time, Jeremy Begbie discovers and number of theological gems through engaging David Sudnow’s work, Ways of the Hand, which is an account of a classical pianist’s struggle on the road to becoming a jazz improviser. Sudnow describes in detail how [...]

A provocative (and timely) essay by Anthony Smith has just been posted on the church and postmodern culture blog.
“The purpose of this particular engagement is to bring together conversation partners and philosophers James K. A. Smith, Michel Foucault, and George Yancy to examine the relationship and resonances between the Christian tradition, postmodernity, and race. Specifically [...]

I recently came across the following quotes from C.S. Lewis—all of which I connect with in one way or another. Unfortunately, I do not have the references for any of them, as it has been a while since I have read anything from Lewis. If you happen to know from which works these quotes are [...]

[This post was inspired by a great conversation underway at the church and postmodern culture.]
Though it is the case that Calvin’s hermeneutic is a more or less grammatico-historical (GH) orientation given his humanist training, such a label needs to be carefully nuanced. E.g., Spinoza, who is perhaps the father of the GH “method,” does not [...]

Wanting to avoid a “logic of reciprocity” [echoing Levinas] in which a dialogue turns into a monologue, as when one party sets the terms of reciprocity, Benson turns to Gadamer in order to begin mapping out what a healthy dialogue might look like. According to Gadamer, “good will” toward the other, as opposed to “proving [...]

In chapter 5 of his book, The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue, Benson engages in a discussion of the “other” in a section called, “The Voice of the Other.” He begins by briefly introducing Emmanuel Levinas who sees philosophy as “suppressing or transmuting the alterity of all that is Other.” In addition, Levinas claims that a [...]

In John 8:19 Jesus pointedly answers the Jews’ unbelieving question “Where is your Father?” with, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” As Ridderbos explains, the Jews’ question was not a case of simply needing more information, rather “[i]n raising the question they are assuming [...]

Michael at Evangelical Catholicism has two excellent posts on “Luther, Aquinas, and the Question of Grace,” which can be found here and here.
I found the following quotes from Michael’s article to be particularly illuminating and worth contemplating. Quoting Aquinas, we read, “everlasting life is an end exceeding the proportion of human nature…. Hence man, by [...]

Since my schedule has been crazy this week, I haven’t had time to read as much as I would like and consequently, my posts are less frequent. Given my schedule-packed week, I thought I would post something more “personal” (and humorous–at least I find it humorous) about names and nicknames. While I was cleaning Ashley’s [...]

Having spent four years of practicing six to eight hours a day as performing jazz guitar major, I wholeheartedly agree with Benson’s take on jazz as “premeditated spontaneity.” That is, contrary to the common and even “romantic” view of jazz improvisation as a kind of musical ex nihilo creative act, Benson argues that jazz improvisers [...]

Continuing his discussion of the “ergon within the energia,” Benson introduces Ingarden’s position. Ingarden’s fundamental assumption is that there is an essential (not simply an accidental) separation between a work and its written and aural expressions (The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue, p. 126). Ingarden is concerned to preserve a kind of superhistorical ergon that remains [...]

A new blog–the church and postmodern culture–has recently entered the “blogosphere” and is well-worth checking out. Next Wednesday the blog will begin a series of conversations centered around James K.A. Smith’s book, Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church. The blog coordinator, Geoff Holsclaw, has kindly invited me to participate in [...]

In his book, Reading Dostoevsky, Victor Terras makes a few interesting comparisons and contrasts between Dostoevsky and Tolstoi.
In regard to heroes, “Tolstoi’s heroes and heroines are ordinary people, engaged in typical relationships, mostly normal ones. The forces that move them are the ones the most men and women know well—for example, the sex drive” (p. [...]

Another nice passage from Benson, as found in, The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue:
“So what results from the improvisatory movement of composition and performance? From musical energia grows an ergon—but an ergon that still remains within the play of musical energia, and from which it cannot be disconnected. Indeed, we might more properly say that this [...]

In a section discussing the ever-so subjective topic of music “restoration,” in which among other preferences, one might focus more on the letter of the piece or on the spirit in trying to re-capture the more “authentic” Bach, Beethoven, or Chopin, Bruce Ellis Benson, writes,
“Following Hegel, Gadamer argues that an essential ingredient in having a [...]

Though the Preface to the first part of the Latin edition of Luther’s works (1545) is often used to date the so-called “Turmerlebnis,” Oberman is highly skeptical of this approach, pointing out that the Preface “has been molded in so many directions and Luther scholars have deduced from its few pages so many different Luther-figures [...]

In chapter 5 of his book, The Dawn of the Reformation, Oberman discusses one of the central issues of Luther’s difference with the scholastic tradition as a whole. As we noted in previous posts, Luther in his Disputatio contra scholasticam theologicam (1517) is said to have attacked the entire medieval scholastic tradition, yet with a [...]