I recently spoke on this subject for the Davenant Institute. You can listen to the lecture here:
Ad`ver`sa´ri`a
n. pl.
A miscellaneous collection of notes, remarks, or selections.-
Recent Comments
-
Why Are Christians so Hung Up About Sex?
Posted in 1 Corinthians, Apologetics, Audio, Bible, Culture, Davenant Institute, Ethics, NT, Sex and Sexuality, Theological
1 Comment
Theopolis Podcast: The Virtue of Nationalism, with Yoram Hazony
On the latest episode of the Theopolis podcast, Peter Leithart and I are joined by the Jewish biblical and political scholar, Yoram Hazony, for a long and stimulating conversation about his recent book, The Virtue of Nationalism. I summarized and explored the thesis of that book a few weeks ago.
You can follow the Theopolis podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, and on most podcast apps. You can read show notes over on the Theopolis podcast website. You can also see past episodes I have contributed to by clicking the ‘Theopolis’ link in the bar above.
Posted in Audio, Economics, Ethics, Philosophy, Podcasts, Politics, Society, Theological, Theopolis
3 Comments
Crossing Borders
The Davenant Institute has a new podcast, with Samantha Cohoe and Mike Plato, called Crossing Borders. The first couple of episodes are here:
Posted in Podcasts, Public Service Announcement
Leave a comment
Yoram Hazony and the Deception of Isaac
A post of mine has just been published over on the Theopolis blog. Within it, I engage with part of Yoram Hazony’s superb The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture, bringing him into conversation with James Jordan’s Primeval Saints on the question of the ethics of Jacob’s deception of his father Isaac. I outline Hazony’s approach to the interpreting of scriptural narrative and then bring those principles to bear upon the narrative of Genesis 27, calling into question Jordan’s reading of the passage (a reading I have advanced myself in the past):
However, if we are to perceive the meaning of the arguments being advanced in biblical narratives, Hazony maintains that we must first be disabused of our expectation that the viewpoint of the biblical authors is a simplistic one. This attitude is especially pronounced among those who approach biblical narratives seeking a tidy ‘moral of the story’, assuming that ‘the author’s view of what is taking place in a given passage must be locatable on a map of simplistic categories such as: (i) approves, (ii) disapproves, or (iii) is amused and intrigued but passes no moral judgment.’ Rather, we must recognize the sophistication and subtlety of the biblical authors. While we may discover a clear authorial standpoint, we should not expect it to be such a simplistic one.
Read the whole thing here.
Posted in 1 Samuel, Bible, Genesis, Hermeneutics, OT, OT Theology, Scripture, Theological
2 Comments
Video: The Trinity in the OT, the Faith of OT Believers, the Angel of the Lord
Today’s question:
A number of years ago there was a lot of debate in certain circles in the UK revolving around these topics: the degree to which Christ/the Trinity is explicitly present in the OT; the nature of the Angel of the Lord; relatedly the object of believers’ faith in the OT (did OT saints trust consciously and explicitly in the Son?); the degree to which revelation is progressive from the OT to the NT. A lot of these threads were explored in the Blackham-Goldsworthy debate: http://www.theologian.org.uk/bible/blackham.html
What are your views on these topics? Some more specific questions might be:
– Does the OT, read on its own terms, clearly present a unipersonal God or a binitatian/Trinitarian God? Or does it murkily present the latter?
– How were OT believers saved? Through explicit faith in the Son, or through other means?
– Who is the Angel of the Lord?
Within my discussion, I reference Meredith Kline’s Images of the Spirit, which I’ve also recently summarized here. I also mention Echoes of Exodus.
If you have any questions for me, please leave them on my Curious Cat account. If you have found these videos helpful, please tell your friends. If you would like to support my continued production of them, you can do so on my Patreon account. You can also get the audio of these videos on Soundcloud or iTunes.
Video: Legal and Natural Consequences of Sin
Today’s question:
What is your understanding of the legal and natural consequences of sin? Should we separate the two? Is there any difference between God’s judgement/wrath and the natural consequence of being handed over to sin/the powers?
If you have any questions for me, please leave them on my Curious Cat account. If you have found these videos helpful, please tell your friends. If you would like to support my continued production of them, you can do so on my Patreon account. You can also get the audio of these videos on Soundcloud or iTunes.
Posted in Audio, Podcasts, Questions and Answers, Soteriology, Theological, Video
Leave a comment
Video: Man, Woman, Deception and Authority in 1 Timothy 2
Today’s question:
How do we explain 1 Timothy 2:14? On the one hand it appears to have a novel idea that Adam was not deceived in the fall. While on the other it appears to ground the submission of women in a tendency to be deceived. What’s going on here?
If you have any questions for me, please leave them on my Curious Cat account. If you have found these videos helpful, please tell your friends. If you would like to support my continued production of them, you can do so on my Patreon account. You can also get the audio of these videos on Soundcloud or iTunes.
Posted in 1 Timothy, Audio, Bible, Controversies, NT, NT Theology, Podcasts, Questions and Answers, Sex and Sexuality, The Church, Theological, Video
5 Comments
Video: Call No Man Father, Castor and Pollux, Contraception
Today’s questions come from one of my Patreon supporters:
1.) How can Paul call Timothy his “true child in the Faith” (1 Tim 1:2; cf. 1 Cor 4:17, 2 Tim 1:2) when Jesus forbids calling anyone Father besides God (Matt 23:9)? I’m assuming Jesus meant “call no man a spiritual father” but that seems to not clear up the issue since it seems like Paul is referring to himself as Timothy’s spiritual father (maybe in a nuanced sense). Is this situation analogous to how, in the next verse, Jesus tells us to call no man instructor except for the Christ, but we obviously have instructors in the church?
2.) What is the significance of Luke mentioning in Acts 28:11 that the boat Paul was sailing on had the twin gods (Castor and Pollux, I think) as figureheads? That might be an historical detail but was curious.
3.) What should Christians think of contraceptives (specifically non-abortive contraceptives, like condoms and birth control)? Should Christians only use methods of “family planning” or are any methods (artificial or natural) of preventing children from being conceived immoral?
If you have any questions for me, please leave them on my Curious Cat account. If you have found these videos helpful, please tell your friends. If you would like to support my continued production of them, you can do so on my Patreon account. You can also get the audio of these videos on Soundcloud or iTunes.
Posted in Acts, Audio, Bible, Ethics, Matthew, NT, NT Theology, Podcasts, Questions and Answers, Sex and Sexuality, Society, The Church, Theological, Video
Leave a comment
Video: The Church and the Natural Family
Today’s question:
In the past two episodes of “Mere Fidelity” there was an underlying issue which was touched on, but not fully discussed. That is the relationship between the biological family and the New Family of which Christ is the firstborn. Examples I am thinking of: 1.) Does the Great Commission now call us to emphasize “being fruitful and multiplying” for this New Family through making disciples, over and against being fruitful in biological families? 2.) For those who cannot have biological families, how much should the church be relied upon to be family? 3.) The New Testament certainly seems to de-emphasize biological family to some degree, what do we make of this?
See my earlier discussion of a biblical theology of the household.
If you have any questions for me, please leave them on my Curious Cat account. If you have found these videos helpful, please tell your friends. If you would like to support my continued production of them, you can do so on my Patreon account. You can also get the audio of these videos on Soundcloud or iTunes.
Posted in Audio, Bible, Controversies, Culture, NT, NT Theology, Podcasts, Questions and Answers, Sex and Sexuality, The Church, Theological, Video
4 Comments
Justice Discourse in the Internet Age, Part 2: Social Justice as a Discourse of Legitimation
The Davenant Institute’s blog has just posted the second of my multi-part series on the subject of social justice discourse in the Internet Age (you can read the first page here).
In keeping with broader shifts in our public life precipitated by the rise of the Internet, this emphasis on diversity is largely a matter of language and ‘optics’: it privileges ideology, discourse, and the spectacle over concrete and material social change. As Crawford points out, it is one reason why the policing of language has become so pronounced in elite institutional life. The degree to which the diversity discourse is window-dressing for cultural elites is much less easy to perceive in the context of social media, where practically everything is window-dressing and it is difficult to pierce through the spectacle that surrounds us.
All this emphasis upon language, ideology, and institutional window-dressing fits right into the highly performative nature of identity in the social flux of the upper middle classes, where, as Crawford puts it, ‘one has to enact one’s social value anew each day.’ Masterfully playing the increasingly complex speech game of woke discourse has become a means by which aspirants to the upper middle class demonstrate their worth. The minefield of this discourse has also become a way in which the upper middle class can protect its boundaries. One of the prominent uses of the ideology and discourse of social justice, as it currently functions, is that of weeding out gauche and uncultivated persons, who have not mastered fashionable elite norms. And social media, in opening up a vast arena of mutual display in discourse, affords a realm for the cultural elites incessantly and competitively to perform their enlightened identities. It is important for us to consider why social justice discourse is all the rage at places like Harvard, but viewed with hostility in many contexts of poverty and social disadvantage, where people recognize that social justice discourse functions in no small part to pathologize them and to keep them out.
Read the whole article here.
Posted in Controversies, Culture, Ethics, Guest Post, Politics, Society, Theological
3 Comments
Alastair's Adversaria 