Posts Tagged ‘cross of Christ’

            One of the challenges of a Christian aesthetic or theology of beauty is the cross of Christ.  Hymns, paintings and sculptures have its beauty as their subject.  Crosses are some of the most beautiful jewelry in the world, but how can such a brutal event as the crucifixion of Jesus be seen as beautiful?  Read the rest of this entry »

            One of the major mistakes in the history of philosophy and theology is to define man primarily as a being consisting of compartments such as reason, will and desires.  This error leaves us with the pleasing illusion that our reason can grasp objective truth with some effort on our part to free it from our desires.  The Bible will have none of this, Read the rest of this entry »

            In the first two parts of this series, “Recognizing the Risen Lord,” we saw that the risen Lord is recognized by identifying him with the crucified Christ and that this fact is so contrary to the human heart’s desires that God’s grace is necessary to grasp it.  In this post we shall examine how the identification of the crucified Jesus with the risen Lord contradicts human religion. Read the rest of this entry »

            One of the unfortunate characteristics of contemporary Christianity is the division between conservative and liberal Christians concerning the role of the church in society.  In general, conservatives emphasize changing the individual and liberals the structures of society.  Both tend to see their position as excluding the other.  The Bible will have none of this false dichotomy, and Psalms 1 and 2 hold the two perspectives together. Read the rest of this entry »

            Although this is in all likelihood not news to you, we theologians are odd birds.  After all, how many people come away from a delightful day-after Valentine’s dinner with a beautiful wife thinking about the possibilities of a new type of culture—a culture of cooperation and not competition? Read the rest of this entry »