Category: scripture

“The Apostle Philosophizes”: Luther and the Critique of Metaphysics in 1515-1516

by Matthew Gaetano TRF has discussed the Protestant engagement with ancient philosophy and scholasticism quite a number of times (here, here, here, here). But we have not directly discussed Martin Luther’s engagement with the question of philosophy and its study by Christians. Luther’s famous contempt for Aristotle, especially early in his reforming career, is on… Read More “The Apostle Philosophizes”: Luther and the Critique of Metaphysics in 1515-1516

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The Selflessness of Seeing: Adolf Schlatter’s Theological Method

"He who thirsts let him come and drink" John 7:37

by Joshua Shaw In a previous post on Karl Barth’s noble response to the Third Reich, we saw his absolute rejection of the then current Zeitgeist. While great, one seems to hear the echoes of the docetic dualism for which Barth is often (in the circles of his “haters”) infamous. I wrote then (quoting Barth),… Read More The Selflessness of Seeing: Adolf Schlatter’s Theological Method

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“Christianity Shrinks From No Test”: Westcott and Hort on Biblical Criticism (2)

by Joshua Shaw In another post we will look at the critical methods of these men (as well as others – Schlatter, Hodge, Bavinck, Lightfoot, etc.) in a more direct way; for now we consider it from the perspective of the last post – the relationship of man to Creation, the relationship of this world… Read More “Christianity Shrinks From No Test”: Westcott and Hort on Biblical Criticism (2)

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“[His] only care was not to please”: Eusebius’s Tribute to Socrates

by Joshua Shaw When we tried in a previous series to take in Eusebius’s apologetic argument against Plato at a glance, we skipped over a few passages in the middle of Book XIII (of the Praeparatio Evangelica). In this book Eusebius is slowly building his case against Plato by thoughtfully curating passages from Socrates’s last… Read More “[His] only care was not to please”: Eusebius’s Tribute to Socrates

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Plato’s “Septuagint” and Alexandrian Judaism

by Joshua Shaw Eusebius calls Plato’s philosophy — and this is a fundamental move of the Praeparatio Evangelica (PE) — a “commentary on” or “interpretation of” (ἑρμηνεία) the Pentateuch. Eusebius is a little sloppy here, since the Pentateuch can mean Moses, or the whole Old Testament, or even, by extension, the authors of the New Testament… Read More Plato’s “Septuagint” and Alexandrian Judaism

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Dead Intellectuals, Fruitless Morals: Bavinck on a Fully Human Religion

by Joshua Shaw In the Prolegomena to his dogmatics Bavinck treats at various junctures the relationship between science and religion. In the eighth chapter of his work (“Religious Foundations”), he examines Science’s (in the sense of Wissenschaft) prerogative to judge religion according to its own standards, an endeavour he deems to have failed by the… Read More Dead Intellectuals, Fruitless Morals: Bavinck on a Fully Human Religion

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Seeing through Plato: Eusebius of Caesarea and His Sources (III)

by Joshua Shaw In the last two installments (here and here), we introduced Eusebius and began to look at his use of sources. Applying the sketch of C.S. Lewis’s father, we saw in the last post a typical example of Eusebius’s ‘labyrinthine’ methods of reading which nevertheless sometimes take him (much) nearer to a proper… Read More Seeing through Plato: Eusebius of Caesarea and His Sources (III)

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Vernacular Scripture in the Reformation Era: Re-examining the Narrative

by Trevor Anderson  I. The ‘Protestant Paradigm’ In this post I examine what historian Andrew Gow calls the “Protestant Paradigm” (PP) – a narrative regarding the status of popular piety and vernacular Scripture in the pre-Reformation era. Andrew Gow studied Reformation history under Heiko Oberman and is currently a professor of religious studies at the University… Read More Vernacular Scripture in the Reformation Era: Re-examining the Narrative

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