Author: Douglas Knight

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Old Testament

Here are a couple of titles that caught my eye while putting together a bibliography for next term’s Old Testament course

Aidan Nichols Lovely like Jerusalem: The Fulfillment of the Old Testament in Christ and the Church

The highly regarded spiritual writer and theologian Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P. presents an overview of the Old Testament by showing what it is and its relationship to the New Testament. He explains that it is essential for one to be familiar with the Old Testament in order to understand properly, and in a deeper way, the richness and message of the New. In particular, Fr. Nichols shows how important it is to grasp that connection in order to understand better and to believe in the message and the person of Christ.

Ignorance of the Old Testament makes it impossible to comprehend the entire divine plan that stretches between the two Testaments. Nichols maintains that we are ill-equipped to read and understand the great theologians, saints, and Scripture commentators of the Christian era without a deep familiarity with the Old Testament. Even understanding and appreciating the art of the Church remains limited if the Old Testament is a closed book for us.

Nichols made use of studies by biblical experts from various Christian denominations–notably Evangelicals and Anglicans–in writing this widely appealing work. He also drew on the Fathers and Doctors of the Church to help illuminate the beauty of the relationship between the two Testaments.

“In this marvelous work of biblical theology and patristic ressourcement, Aidan Nichols illumines the pattern of God’s promises in salvation history in a manner that will be accessible and informative to students, pastors, and scholars. Other than Pope Benedict XVI, no theologian writing today has mastered so well the approach to Scripture set forth by such giants as Jean Danielou, Louis Bouyer, and Henri de Lubac. This book should be read by everyone who seeks an understanding of Scripture and of the early Christian Fathers.”
–Matthew Levering, Associate Professor of Theology, Ave Maria University

Robert Wilken Isaiah: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators

In his extremely thorough work on Isaiah, Robert Wilken brings to bear his considerable knowledge of early Christianity. Drawing on writings of the church fathers — Eusebius of Caesarea, Ambrose, Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret of Cyrus, Bernard of Clairvaux, and nearly sixty others — all of them masterfully translated, this work allows the complex words of Isaiah to come alive.

Wilken’s selection of ancient commentators clearly illuminates how Isaiah was used by the New Testament writers and understood by the early church fathers. Each chapter begins with a modern English translation of the septuagint, prepared by Moisés Silva. Editorial comments provide a foundation for understanding the excerpted commentaries and other writings that follow for each chapter.

Read everything by Wilken. And you know Brian E Daley The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology

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Freeing speech

For Oâ??Donovan, the extraordinary events of that Pentecost day changed the world forever. Godâ??s people became open to mutual address.

â?¢ It eventually led to the â??conciliar movementâ?? in Christendomâ??a call upon the Pope to take seriously the Christian wisdom of others.
â?¢ In turn, there blossomed parliamentary movement in civil societyâ??a call upon the King to take seriously the wisdom, whether Christian or otherwise, of others.
â?¢ Threaded into this story is the Reformation, and the â??non-conformistâ?? movement among Christiansâ??a call by Christians upon each other to understand that claims for theological truth must be settled by words, not power, as the Bible is discussed freely among groups who freely meet together.

It comes as quite a surprise for many people to see the central role of Christianity in this historical story. In the popular alternative, secularism invented â??free speechâ??: while Christians were busily killing each other, the â??Enlightenmentâ?? saved the West by inventing free and rational enquiry. But that account is heavily mythological, and simply fails to notice all the developments in medieval Christendom that gave rise to the very possibility of free speech. A seed fell on the day of Pentecost, and sprouted in the soil of Christendom.

There was no political â??free speechâ?? in the Roman empire. But after Pentecost during the centuries that followed, political authority had â??to confront and accommodate the free discourse of a society which has learned to recognise authority also in the word spoken by God by manservants and maidservantsâ?? (Oliver O’Donovan The Desire of the Nations p. 269). If God could use anyone in his church to speak truth, then potentially, any voice could now address the society about the common good.

Andrew Cameron Freeing Speech

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An oddly self-regarding conceit

(Last week the Islamic scholar and reformer Tariq Ramadan argued in the Guardian for an end to calls on British Muslims to integrate. Here, Prospect editor David Goodhart replies)

The idea that British foreign policy has been run on an anti-Muslim agenda does not stand examination. In Bosnia and Kosovo (and Sierra Leone), Britain took military action on behalf of Muslims, in some cases against Christians. In Iraq, rightly or wrongly (and Prospect was opposed to Britain’s role) we helped to remove a secular dictator, and we will leave behind a Muslim democracy of some kind. If there has been a disproportionate intervention in Muslim countries, it is mainly because those countries are disproportionately unstable and conflict-ridden. Of course, I am aware it is not seen like that in much of the Muslim world—where the typical hypocrisy and realpolitik of the west (relating to UN resolutions, Israel, oil, good dictators and bad dictators) always seems to bear down on Muslims. But the belief that it is all about Islam is an oddly self-regarding conceit, arising from the prickliness and defensiveness that many Muslims feel confronted with a stronger and more successful western world. And if British Muslims are so troubled by the loss of Muslim life, why did we hear so little about the greatest unnecessary loss of such life in recent times in the Iran-Iraq war? No, unfortunately, what moves many political Muslims is the loss of Muslim life that can in some way be construed as the fault of the west. Shouldn’t you be using your influence to combat this anti-western, victim mentality among your fellow Muslims?

David Goodhart Open Letter to Tariq Ramadan

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Conversations in Deep Church

Westminster Theological Centre – Conversations in Deep Church
4 evenings beginning June 19th 2007

The late C.S. Lewis coined the expression Deep Church in a call for a concerted exploration of the resources in the Christian tradition that unite orthodox Christians across the denominational and theological spectrums. One of Lewis’ concerns was the erosion of a common Christian language and discipleship; the loss of the most basic understanding of the gospel that has been believed by the Church at all times and in all places.

In the last five years the Deep Church vision has been reawakened in the UK with St Paul’s, Hammersmith in London hosting regular discussions under the leadership of Prof. Andrew Walker, Dr Luke Bretherton, Revd. Simon Downham and Revd. Ian Stackhouse. These discussions have now produced three publications (GOSPEL DRIVEN CHURCH by Ian Stackhouse, EVANGELICALS AND TRADITION Daniel Williams and REMEMBERING OUR FUTURE), a series of lectures by Prof. Walker (at Westminster Theological Centre in the Autumn of 2007) and some new discussion at Andy Goodliff and deepchurch.blogspot.com and deepchurch.org.uk.

Explorations in Deep Church takes the discussion wider with professional educators from around the UK bringing the best of today’s theology to those of us committed to a passionate discipleship, orthodox faith and dynamic witness to a fast changing post-modern world.

Week 1 (19th June): Dr. Graham Tomlin – Luther, the Cross and the Christian Life

Week 2 (26th June): Dr. Chris Joby – Why do Christians worship?

Week 3 (3rd July): Dr. Alan Spence – The humanity of Christ

Week 4 (10th July): Dr. Douglas Knight – The people of the Spirit in the Body of Christ

Tuesdays 19th, 26th June & 3rd, 10th July 2007 7 – 9pm
Weeks 1 & 2 at St Mary’s Church, York St, London W1H 1EA
Weeks 3 7 4 at St Mark’s Church 245 Old Marylebone Road, London NW1 5QT

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Ruini: the encounter of cultures is enabled by the culture of faith

In Truth And Tolerance: Christian Belief And World Religions Cardinal Ratzinger advanced a proposal that was rather innovative with respect to the theological hypotheses most widespread today: to abandon the idea of the inculturation of a faith that is culturally neutral in itself, which would be transplanted into different cultures regardless of their religions, and have recourse instead to the encounter of cultures (or â??interculturalityâ??), based upon two strong points.

On the one hand, the encounter of cultures is possible and is constantly taking place because, in spite of all of their differences, the men that produce them share the same nature and the same openness of reason to the truth.

On the other hand, the Christian faith, which was born from the revelation of the truth itself, produces what we might call the â??culture of faith,â?? the characteristic of which is that it does not belong to a single specific people, but can subsist in any people or cultural subject, entering into relation with the individual culture and encountering and co-penetrating it. This is concretely the unity, and also the cultural multiplicity and universality, of Christianity.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini Theology and culture: Borderlands

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Fr Ragheed Aziz Ganni

â??Without Sunday, without the Eucharist the Christians in Iraq cannot surviveâ??: that was how Fr Ragheed spoke of his communityâ??s hope, a community that was used to facing death on a daily basis, that same death that yesterday afternoon faced him, on his way home from saying mass. After having fed his faithful with the Body and Blood of Christ, he gave his own blood, his own life for Iraq, for the future of his Church. This young priest had willingly, knowingly chosen to remain by the side of his parishioners from Holy Spirit parish in Mosul, judged the most dangerous, after Baghdad. His reasoning was simple: without him, without its pastor, his flock would have been lost. In 2003 on finishing his studies in Rome, he decided to return to his country â??that is where I belong, that is my placeâ??.

Asia News

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Dialogue is possible if parties do not hide their identity

Pope Benedict XVI’s masterly lecture [at Regensburg] tended in fact to highlight a widening of reason that, by going beyond anti-religion Enlightenment thinking (“irrational”), allows for rich and fraternal dialogue with extra-European and non-Western cultures. At the same time, the Pope showed that violence is “irrational” and is therefore worthy neither of God, nor of man, nor of any religion, Islam included.

The fuss which resulted from the Regensburg speech was fuelled by liberalist Westerners and islamist Easterners and belittled the profoundness of Benedict XVI’s proposal so as to make it appear a simple dispute between Islam and Christianity, with the latter “obviously” unable to understand Islam and accusing the Pope of having fomented a “war of religions.”

But it is only a partial healing. Where in fact healing is slow is in the liberalist Western world where, to avoid questioning its blind closure to the problem of Godless reason, it continues to rail against the Catholic Church and the Pope, and justifies the many forms of violence committed in the name of Islam, fomenting a new war of religion with Islam.

In their ideological blindness, a good part of the so-called “progressive” intellectuals says that the causes of terrorism are American imperialism, colonialism, the state of Israel, globalization. But in this way they do not realize that Islamist terrorism strikes well beyond the West: Buddhists in Thailand, Hindus in India, Muslims themselves, both Sunni and Shia. Even violence against Palestinians does not only come with an Israeli stamp, but also derives from a power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.

Thanks to this blindness in Europe – and in Italy – we are witnessing a veritable alliance between progressivism and violent Islamism. In the name of anti-Americanism and multiculturalism, people are calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, from Afghanistan, and are justifying the violence of males against Islamic women and polygamy. Again yesterday, the Pope was ridiculed in the European Parliament, while great caution was exercised when it was a question of the anti-Mohammad caricatures. And while a benevolent attitude is being preached with regard to a violent Islam, an intransigent and intolerant attitude is spreading against the Catholic Church, “guilty” of displaying crosses and nativity scenes and of expressing its view on life and family in the (“liberal”?) society.

The encounter between Benedict XVI and Khatami shows that dialogue is possible if parties do not hide their identity and work for the good of men and women. To do this, it is necessary that, from East to West, we condemn violence, always and regardless, while guaranteeing religious freedom.

Bernardo Cervellera Benedict XVI and Khatami: the good trail is Regensburg

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Cavanaugh: The state parodies the Church

Youâ??ve written that the nation state has become a â??parody of the Churchâ?? and that we should treat it like the â??phone company.â?? How far do you think the state has overreached itself in this country?

William Cavanaugh: The phone company quote comes from MacIntyre. He says that the nation state is a dangerous and unwieldy organization that presents itself on the one hand as a bureaucratic provider of goods and services which is always about to, but never actually provides, value for money, and on the other hand, as a repository of sacred values which from time to time asks us to lay down our lives on its behalf. He says itâ??s like being asked to die for the telephone company. I think that really characterizes it very well.

On the one hand, you have this enormous bureaucratic organization which is growing constantly despite all the talk about small government. Even under Reagan and the current president the state continues to grow. People foresaw this as early as the 19th century. When thereâ??s no organic community and your society is a mass of individuals, each with their own goals, goods, and ends, you need a bigger and bigger state to keep them all from interfering with each other.

Thereâ??s a spiritual aspect to the stateâ??s claims. Thatâ??s why I call it a â??parody of the Churchâ??â??it claims to saves us. Currently, itâ??s saving us from these diabolical terrorists who are out there and want to kill us. The state presents itself as the only protection from this diabolical enemy. The irony is that the state made this enemy for us in the first place.

The amnesia about who terrorists are and where they come from is just amazing. The way the storyâ??s usually told, we were just sitting here minding our own business, and then on September 11, 2001, these crazy people attacked us for no good reason and now we have to defend ourselves. But the truth of the matter is much more complex. It has a lot to do with American foreign policy and American military meddling in the Middle East which we donâ??t want to talk about. It has a lot to do with the CIA helping to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Iran in 1953 and installing a Shah who ran a brutal dictatorship. These are things we forget, but that other people never forget. The state in a lot of ways is like a protection racket: it defends us against the enemies that it itself creates.

What can or should the Church do if or when the nation state oversteps its boundaries?

The first thing the Church needs to do is stop fighting unjust wars. Take the just war theory seriously. Iâ??m not talking about pacifism. If thereâ??s a war that the Church judges is unjust, then Catholics shouldnâ??t fight it. Thatâ??s the way the just war theory is supposed to work. Itâ??s sometimes supposed to say â??noâ?? to acts of violence. What the theory is usually used for, of course, is to justify whatever violence is going on. I canâ??t think of a single instance where it was used to stop violence. That is the most pressing issue.

Imagine what would have happened if Catholics in the previous war had said in significant numbers, â??No, sorry, this is an unjust war; weâ??re just going to sit this one out.â?? The world would have turned upside down.

Another thing is to stop buying into the idea that all significant questions of money and power need to be funneled through the state, that the only thing we can do about issues like health care is to get the state to do something.

William Cavanaugh in interview with GodSpy