2019-09-24 03:48
In a previous post I began a commentary on Aquinas' understanding of emotion (or "the passions") as it is laid out in the Summa theologica. In that reflection (on ST 2.22), the focus was on… Read More
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Faith And Theology Blog
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A blog for theological scholarship and contemporary theological reflection
2019-09-21 04:18
The account of the emotions (or passions) serves an important role in the anthropology of Thomas Aquinas' Summa theologica, being situated between the treatment of human will and agency on t… Read More
2019-09-19 04:07
There is something uniquely eternal about love. After all: "and now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13), and "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8)… Read More
2019-07-31 06:06
Anselm's "satisfaction theory of the atonement" is much maligned, often by those who, in my opinion, are dealing with a caricature of what Anselm actually advances in his eleventh-century wo… Read More
2019-07-21 04:29
I imagine that many readers are familiar already with the French historian and philosopher Rémi Brague. As for me, my first encounter with him is via his latest book, Curing Mad Truth… Read More
2019-07-19 03:51
I have had a long and rather intimate relationship with Ben Myers. For example: I have lived in his house, slept in his bed, mowed his lawn (or not), driven his car, drank his whisky, and he… Read More
2018-08-30 03:17
Fourteen years and 2600 posts later, this blog is now closed. It's been a lot of fun. But I don't quite have the heart to keep the blog going after the death of Kim Fabricius. I won't… Read More
2018-07-04 22:23
by Kim Fabricius, 1948-2018Kim’s family sent me through his final batch of doodlings, posted posthumously here. (Kim, your last doodling is incorrect. But I won’t hold it against… Read More
2018-07-01 21:14
My friend Kim Fabricius has died. On the weekend I received an email from his family. He was at his local coffee shop when he died, suddenly and unexpectedly. I didn’t realise a person… Read More
2018-06-07 05:11
You think you know someone, but of course you don’t know them too. What might you not know about Jesus of Nazareth?It is not the gift- and skill-sets – the intelligence and… Read More
2018-04-09 06:59
Breaking News: “Hell abolishes pope” (source: John Piper).Their Lord was a loser, his ministry a failure, his death a shambles, so just what did Christians expect when pastors be… Read More
2018-02-21 07:05
I’ve never had an original thought in my life – including the thought that I’ve never had an original thought in my life.Do you ever feel that something is missing from you… Read More
2018-02-12 04:41
Here’s an idea for a class I’ll be teaching next semester on Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton. What do you think of this hell-purgatory-paradise schema? I wouldn’t aim to imp… Read More
2017-12-29 22:00
“What is the chief end of man? To glorify Gold and enjoy it whatever.” (Westchester Shorter Catechism)So the Pope nods off while praying? No, the Pope prays while nodding off.Tit… Read More
2017-12-21 03:36
I don’t want to pick the best books of the year. My reading lately has been too eclectic for anything like that. These days I rely mostly on audiobooks. So my reading gravitates toward… Read More
2017-12-18 00:41
Kim sent out this Christmas letter and I asked if we could post it here:Christmas is, for me, a haunted house. The tree is enchanting, the ritual of gift-exchange delightful, the food cornuc… Read More
2017-11-08 23:47
They had a farewell service for me in Sydney yesterday and I gave this short departing speech.I came here for a job and what I got was a vocation. When I arrived at the college nine years a… Read More
2017-10-30 21:02
No dog lives forever but I hoped he would be the first. Kola, my Labrador. Kola, my trusted friend and confidant these 7 years. Kola who has seen my children grow, almost since they were bab… Read More
2017-10-17 05:29
After nine years in Sydney I have taught my last classes and said my prayers and am moving on. There comes a time in a man’s life when what he really wants is to be able to teach Plato… Read More
2017-10-12 23:48
by Kim FabriciusWhat’s the best way to find God? Set out at night – and go in the opposite direction. Does God speak to me? It’s a question that I myself have put to the L… Read More
2017-10-05 21:48
“Death indeed will terminate my story, but it will not conclude it; for it will make all my hopes into might-have-beens and my fears into never-minds, and so make absurd the anticipato… Read More
2017-09-10 00:28
Robert W. Jenson – Jens –Saw creation through a triune lens,And heard it in the key of Christ,A very, very, very nicePrelude to the fugue of Paradise,Composed by God the Holy, Ho… Read More
2017-08-16 04:43
Gadzooks! It’s the 4th of July,when we boast we’re the gens Domini,and with napalm and nukesand a “Put up your dukes!”we give thanks to the Lord of the Flies.Thank Go… Read More
2017-07-26 08:41
… And Jesus concluded, “Which one of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”He said, “The one who showed him m… Read More
2017-07-19 20:27
I have today been required to reconsider every word I have ever spoken against natural theology. The reason? I have been reading scripture. One single verse of scripture can send shivers dow… Read More
2017-07-14 04:00
The next Theology Connect conference will be coming to Sydney in July 2018. The theme is sin and grace in Christian theology, with keynotes by Kelly Kapic, Alan Torrance, Simon Chan. There's… Read More
2017-06-14 23:02
Why is God silent? Because the tree of trust has silence for its roots.God moves in mysterious ways, but he also moves in quite pedestrian ways. He walks and runs, hops and skips, leap… Read More
2017-06-02 00:48
Speaking of the trinity, here's a letter that T. F. Torrance sent to an Australian minister back in 1984, responding to a question about the filioque. Torrance explains his criticism of the… Read More
2017-05-31 23:11
I spent a few days compulsively tweeting on the doctrine of the trinity. I've just come to the end of a 12-week class on this doctrine and I enjoyed having the opportunity to collect my… Read More
2017-05-10 22:36
Nietzsche’s excellent question as to why, if Christians are redeemed, they don’t look redeemed, is more excellently answered by Evelyn Waugh: “Think what I would look like… Read More
2017-05-02 00:12
I.Recently I read a book of magic: Patrick Rothfuss’ novel, The Name of the Wind. Like many tales of arcane entanglement with the forces of darkness, Rothfuss fixates on the idea of na… Read More
2017-04-21 23:41
by Kim FabriciusIn the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the fac… Read More
2017-03-28 05:53
by Kim FabriciusAnother terrorist attack and mass murder, the brutal ending of lives and worlds, the implacably occluded futures of the wounded and grief-stricken – and the inevitable… Read More
2017-03-11 20:42
Raise your hand if you’re a Christian … Now raise your hand if you’re a “born-again” Christian … Just as I thought: a disparity. Which disappoints me hu… Read More
2017-03-10 10:42
In case you hadn't noticed, the Center for Barth Studies in Princeton has been developing an exciting number of new initiatives over recent years. One of these, The Barth Graduate Student Co… Read More
2017-03-01 14:40
“Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death / Pray for us now and at the hour of our death” - T. S. EliotMy teeth ache as though I were biting ice-cream. The chill wind… Read More
2017-02-27 00:53
My postgrad seminar on Barth's early theology starts this week. If anyone would like to join in the weekly readings and to be part of the discussion, I've created a Facebook group. Anyone i… Read More
2017-02-23 00:08
Old Nobodaddy – who lives in Manhattan, parties in Atlantic City, and holidays in Florida –let your name be up in lights!Do what it takes to make America great again [repeat].Tur… Read More
2017-02-16 22:53
What an immaculately conceived picture of Queen B as Madonna del Parto in the Instagram icon. I hear that Gabriel has told Beyoncé to name the twin boy after his father: Jay… Read More
2017-02-03 23:38
I promised you an update on what we'll be reading for my Barth seminar this semester. Thanks for all the great suggestions, both here and on Facebook. After much reflection and dialectical h… Read More
2017-02-01 03:07
A friend came to see me today. He was talking about his days as a theological student back in South Africa. I mentioned Karl Barth, and he said he never liked Barth. When I demanded an expl… Read More
2017-01-24 23:04
(Myra was a 79-year-old former primary school teacher, keen golfer, and faithful church member who spent the last 7 years of her life in a nursing home before dying of a dementia-related ill… Read More
2017-01-03 20:28
The gospel in 2 words: “Hey, Boo.”If it’s a clear night on New Year’s Eve, I make a point of gazing at the heavens and counting the stars, to get a tally of my sins a… Read More
2016-12-13 07:29
Last year here at F&T I posted a letter of support and solidarity that our church had just sent to the mosques in Swansea in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and the sudden wav… Read More
2016-12-04 23:25
One cold December day, an ordinary American guy called Mr. K was walking along the road towards the future when he was mugged by Modernist and left for dead.Postmodernist came by, heard Mr… Read More
2016-11-15 00:48
“Ah, grief makes us precise!” —Leonard CohenI have never been theologically troubled by the so-called problem of evil that theodicists vainly address because, frankly, I ha… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-11-09 21:11
Some wonderful new books were brought into the world this year. I love them and am grateful for their safe arrival. My favourites have included Rowan Williams's brilliant study of tragic th… Read More
2016-10-28 20:22
This year it was Origen; next year I’ll be teaching a postgraduate seminar on the theology of Karl Barth. It’s a 12-week course and I’m trying to decide on the readings. B… Read More
2016-10-25 21:14
The trick to ending a sermon is to stop without concluding. Paul Valéry observed that “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.” So too a sermon.Why did God give us cloth… Read More
2016-10-24 13:06
Michael Gorman is in Manchester this week, delivering the annual Didsbury Lectures on "Missional Theosis in the Gospel of John."You can watch a live webcast of the lectures here. The first l… Read More
2016-09-25 23:08
Voltaire, Candide (1759)Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871)Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895)Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)James Joyce, A Portrait o… Read More
2016-09-22 06:27
Here's a rough-and-ready teaching tool from today's class. We had already done some work on the social vision of Augustine's City of God, so I used that as a basis for outlining four modern… Read More
2016-09-20 01:00
What’s the difference between optimism and hope? Hope is for pessimists. The Farmers Unions of California and Kansas are thinking of uniting, but they’re having a problem with th… Read More
2016-09-15 11:19
Krish Kandiah has mandated 11 books every Christian should read before they turn 25, and Andy Goodliff responded with an alternative list. I will give you my own list. How can I resist?Inste… Read More
2016-09-10 02:04
On the mountain where my parents live, deep in the rainforest, there is an unassuming red-brick chapel where the people go to pray. I went there one Sunday morning, following the winding way… Read More
2016-09-07 21:06
Emergency services were at full stretch last night after a flurry of frantic 911 calls summoned police and paramedics to the Firstest Evangelical Church in Fishfaith, Texas. On arrival they… Read More
2016-09-06 00:14
I tried, reader, I tried my very best. What else can a person do? I wrote a piece for the satirical website, Babylon Bee. I submitted it humbly and with a good heart. I didn't even ask for m… Read More
2016-08-31 12:11
MatthewThe Lamp under the Bushel (5:14-15): “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (Pink Floyd)The Wise and Foolish Builders (7:24-27): “Shelter from the Storm” (Bob Dylan)New… Read More
2016-08-24 05:33
Those who knew G. K. Chesterton always knew how to find him. Wherever he went, he left a trail of essays behind him—often just little ruminations scribbled on scraps of wallpaper and o… Read More
2016-08-17 21:46
The cast of characters at the RNC was right out of Looney Tunes. I half expected Elmer Twump to delight the crowd by whispering, “Shhh. Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting Hiwwary.”T… Read More
2016-08-12 20:19
I had the pleasure of giving a short dinner speech at Campion College this week. I compared Milton's tragic vision to Shakespeare's comic vision, and argued that these are two alternative… Read More
2016-08-08 05:34
I’m a psychoanalyst’s dream: I rarely have sweet ones. Usually something of a nightmare. Two in particular I’ve been having for over 50 years. In one I’m being chased… Read More
2016-08-05 18:24
A good book gathers annotations—marginal notes, exclamations marks, and question marks, often paired together. When the margins are full, these engagements overflow into the pages of j… Read More
2016-08-03 07:37
I’m reading Wendell Berry’s novel Hannah Coulter with some students this semester. The narrator, Hannah, is an old woman looking back on her life in Port William. Right at the st… Read More
2016-07-25 23:40
(Tune: Gonfalon Royal)God, save us from a silent spring*,when sparrows are too sick to sing:no hymns of praise announcing dawn but muted cries as nature mourns.When pesticides have done thei… Read More
2016-07-21 12:09
The new book by Marc Cortez, Christological Anthropology in Historical Perspective, offers interesting snapshots of the interaction of christology and anthropology in the history of Christia… Read More
2016-07-17 00:32
Brexit: well, so much for plebis*ites.“What the fuck just happened?” exclaimed one observer. “Inept, embarrassing, horrible, clueless,” said another. And a third: &ld&hell…Read More
2016-07-10 23:23
A young man who knew his Bible, could cite chapter and verse, was sent by his pastor to question this new teacher in town, name of Jesus, to see if he was “sound”. “Jesus… Read More
2016-07-05 23:39
Yesterday at the ANZATS conference in Melbourne I gave a paper on sacrifice and atonement in Origen (focusing on Origen's Homilies on Leviticus). This was an attempt to develop some of the… Read More
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