Theologizing Blind

Gordon, James. The Holy One In Our Midst: An Essay on the Flesh of Christ. This is number two out of the three books I plan to read on the extra Calvinisticum. In short, the extra states that the Logos exists outside the person of the Son during the incarnation. the extra has a long pedigree in spite of its name—which arose because of its importance in debates over the Eucharist00but that is not the major concern of the author. After the first introductory chapter, the author gets down to explaining and responding to the major objections to the doctrine. Ultimately all of these doctrines come down to the question of the hypostatic union and the relationship of God the son to the person of Jesus more broadly. The author ably responds to each objection, showing how, for example, affirming the extra does not mean that God only partially became incarnate, or that we can only worship the Logos and not the person of Jesus. Chapter 4—actually the wekest in my book, in my opinion—use...

Feser, Edward. Aristotle's Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science. I always greatly anticipate a new Feser release, and this book does not disappoint. It covers different ground than Feser has written about in the past, though still within an Aristotelian-Thomist framework. Where metaphysics inquires into the general nature of reality—what must be given the case given the empirical facts we see—philosophy of nature reflects more specifically on the nature of physical reality. Under the umbrella of philosophy of nature are such subjects as the nature of life, the characteristics of matter, and the definition of space and time. All of these subjects are covered by Feser (specifically in chapters 4, 5, and 6), and covered well. In particular, chapter 4—the longest of the book—gives detailed attention to the subjects of motion, space, and time. Being something of a nerd myself, I was not surprised that the section on time travel (in which Fes...

Griffin, David. The Word Became Flesh: A Rapprochement Between Natural Law and Radical Christological Ethics. I am not sure how to either describe or rate this book. On the one hand, its project is commendible—reconciling the natural law tradition with “radical Christological ethics” (which mostly means anabaptism), tow streams that have very often seemed to be at odds. On the other hand, it takes far too long to say far too little. The organization of the book is not bad. Parts one and two are devoted to sketching out natural law and Christological ethics respectively, where Part 3 attempts a synthesis based on a Chalcedonian logos christology. Chapters 1 and 3 are probably the toughest going. In particular, chapter 1, on the philosophical and theological background for natural law, requires a great deal of background knowledge, only some of which I possessed. After that, though, the going gets slightly easier. Chapter 2 outlines two theories of natural law: protological (ex...

Wingren, Gustaf. Man and the Incarnation: A Study in the Biblical Theology of Irenaeus. This is probably the best theology book I’ve read so far this year. Wingren’s take on Irenaeus is classic and lucid. His treatment centering on the image of God is helpful and makes the various sections of the book easy to remember. He neatly ties together Adam, hrist, and the church, showing how Christ is both foreshadowed and presupposed by Creation, and how Christ’s recapitulation and new creation both renews and expands those united to him. The book is divided into three roughly equal sections as elucidated above. The first section on man demonstrates Irenaeus’s theological anthropology, in that since Christ is the image of the Invisible God and man was created in the image of God, man was created in and through Christ, with Christ as the archetype for man’s life. Wingren summarizes Irenaeus’s view of the fall and human sin, by which the image of God is corrupted and man is enslaved to...

Zeskind, Leonard. Blood and Politics, A History of White Nationalism, from the Margins to the Mainstream. Overall, this was quite a good book. It starts in the late 60s (roughly 1965, but with some material from after Brown v. Board) and moves up to around 2004-05. I was made familiar with a number of names I hadn’t heard of. It was also interesting to see where, when, and to what extent, the crazier wing of the white nationalists intersected with broader conservative politics. Answer: it is less that a lot of liberals might believe, but certainly more than the average conservative should be comfortable with. There are some particular strengths to the book. Given the controversial nature of the material, the book is surprisingly even-handed and non-polemical in its tone The author’s feelings are obvious, but he manages to stand at enough of a distance to give a more-or-less accurate view of things. Even more startling is his treatment of the religious aspects of the movement,...