Unthinkable Wings

I was having great difficulty motivating myself to revise for my last exam (tomorrow) until I reminded myself that, actually, I do like theology, and in particular I like doctrine, and I get to read and engage with stuff I really like (or, in the case of Schleiermacher, like arguing with). I have babbled of my love for Aquinas before, but The Confessions is a great text too, and I have a good deal of fondness for Barth despite the fact that he was dead wrong to reject the analogia entis*)

Actually, I realised in the exam yesterday that despite my bitching about the OT - largely the result of being overwhelmed with Too Many Texts - I really love that too. I still don't like the method of approaching texts that Biblical Studies tends to default to, but writing about, say, Ezekiel is just fun. And remind me - or don't, perhaps - to tell you sometime why the Holiness Code (Lev 17-26) is not dull superstitious legalism but, despite some attitudes that we would rightly challenge today, a brilliant piece of theology and a new vision for the people of God. Whoever compiled it was a genius, seriously.

Incidentally, I recently found a clever fic about the Deuteronomist, the composition of the 'book of the law', and the Josian reform, which has clearly been written by someone who knows their Biblical scholarship. I do love the AO3...


* A pity, because I think his theological account of creation would be much more convincing if he could tie it up with revelation, which a proper understanding of the analogia entis allows; creation is a kind of revelation too.

Shameful confession: I sometimes find Jesus as he is portrayed in John's Gospel somewhat obnoxious.

Am having a very dull day reading about John and the Synoptics. Happily, I was cheered up by a friend sending me a link to that peerless publication, New Directions in Pooh studies.

Recommended for anyone who has had anything to do with OT scholarship in particular. Or, indeed, if you find this sort of thing amusing:

Eeyore's wisdom is philosophical or speculative wisdom; he

thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself Why?, and sometimes he thought Wherefore?, and sometimes he thought Inasmuch as which?, and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about (W 4.39-40).

This is arguably the best account that has ever been given of the nature of philosophical thought.

Oh, Thomas, so awesome

There is a famous remark of Bonaventura, the Franciscan Master of the neighbouring school to Thomas’s in Paris [who] recalled the dream of St. Jerome who saw himself being whipped at the last judgement for having taken pleasure in reading Cicero. Bonaventura denounced the use of philosophy in theology by many, including the Friars Preacher, saying: “It is like mixing water in the pure wine of the Word of God.” Thomas […] replied […] “It’s not a case of mixing water in the wine, but of turning water into wine.”

M.D. Chenu. 2002. Aquinas and his Role in Theology. Collegeville: Michael Glazier, 28.