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– – I just finished reading Robert Jenson’s magisterial Systematic Theology. It was a frustrating, beautiful, doxological, and blessed read. More than many books I have read over the last few years, this one has stirred my affections for (and questions about) Christ all over again. Having read over the summer the logic-laden The Humility of the…
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– – Robert Jenson’s Systematic Theology Vol. I is a treasure trove of beautiful doctrinal insights. Near the end of his first section, he comments on what is needed to engage with the theological tradition in an honest way. Just like Webster argues in his magisterial Holy Scripture, Jenson posits that the only way a…
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– – Maximus the Confessor, in Ambiguum 7, writes: “If it perceives, it certainly loves what it perceives. If it loves, it certainly experiences ecstasy [εκστασιs] over what is loved. If it experiences ecstasy, it presses on eagerly, and if it presses on eagerly it intensifies its motion; if its motion is intensified, it does…
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– – Maximus the Confessor is known as the greatest seventh-century defender of a logically-consistent Chalcedonianism. As the “Confessor” part of his title indicates, Maximus held to the Apostolic Faith at a time when the entire empire opposed it (even if the empire did so unknowingly, which my reading of the history would tend to…
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– – I am much too late to the game with Bruce McCormack’s study on Christology, The Humility of the Eternal Son. I am thankful to be done with it finally so that I can share a few quotes from the book and comment on the overall experience. The quotes I will be pulling from…
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“One Substance, Three Persons.” Such is the mantra used virtually across the board in many Western churches when tasked with describing the ontological makeup of God. Purportedly, the Christian God is Trinity: He is one God made up of Father, Son, and Spirit. How this is the case is usually chalked up to “mystery” and…
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– – A groaning cry doth issue forthFrom a young, dumb thinker’s mind hole,Sputtering from a butter’s worthOf a troll’s stinky green grass knoll. Now this troll’s tarts are quite the treat,Do not think me one to quarrel,I myself am happy to bleatAnd give the troll dogmatic laur’ls. The boy, though, he needs to be…
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– – On my old Wix blog, I would post poems I had written every once in a while. Well, my journal has seen an uptick in the amount of poems written in it for the last few weeks so I felt I would share one here. —- Language, words, are a railroaded track of…
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– – The late John Webster was a shining example of a well-informed, biblical, and unashamedly Protestant theologian whose integration of Karl Barth’s theological emphases with patristic and Reformational insights made him one of the few theologians (after Torrance) whose writings are actually worth reading. I have only read one other book by Webster, which…
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– – As I’ve written in one of my most recent blog posts, I recently began the long journey towards completing Barth’s Church Dogmatics. I finished reading the first volume, 1/I, a few months ago. Since then, I have tried to supplement my reading with various smaller theological, sociological, and creative works (like John Webster’s…
Blog Posts
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– – A groaning cry doth issue forthFrom a young, dumb thinker’s mind hole,Sputtering from a butter’s worthOf a troll’s stinky green grass knoll. Now this troll’s tarts are quite the treat,Do not think me one to quarrel,I myself am happy to bleatAnd give the troll dogmatic laur’ls. The boy, though, he needs to be…
Alex Renner's Blog 