DET

Word and Spirit in the Eucharist   This study now reaches its goal of discussing Congar’s account of the relation between Word and Spirit in the Eucharist. The pattern that has been discerned thus far is maintained in Congar’s treatment of the Eucharist, that is, he correlates an objective pole associated with the Word and a subjective pole associated with the Spirit. Congar’s treatment of the Eucharist is both rich and fragmentary, and perhaps rich precisely because it is fragmentary. Justice cannot be done to it as a whole, and the following will be limited to three specific concerns. First, the difference between the church as a whole and the ordained ministry in the Eucharist will be explored. Second, the difference between consecration and communion will be discussed. Finally, Congar’s account of the Eucharist in terms of upward and downward movements will be examined.  First, what of the relation between congregation and priest in the Eucharist? Congar thinks of t...

Review of Paul T. Nimmo, Being in Action: The Theological Shape of Barth’s Ethical Vision (London: T & T Clark, 2007). In other news, the von Balthasar blog conference is now over . It was a great conference, and David deserves our thanks for putting it together. Thanks also to the many excellent contributors. Stay tuned for the 2008 Barth Blog Conference, here at DET.

...with my own contribution . It is a mere response, but I'm sure that all of you - my dedicated readers - will want to check it out. And, while you are over there , be sure to catch up on the rest of the conference. It has been quite good. Thanks, again, to David for putting it all together.

That's right! Over the next two weeks you will find a wide variety of reflections on Hans Urs von Balthasar's theology over at Fire & Rose . David has put together a good line-up. Yours truly has contributed a response, which will appear late next week. Don't forget that the 2008 Barth Blog Conference to be held here at DET is in the works. It will appear in June.

(1) There is a new review up on the Center for Barth Studies website of Donald Wood’s Barth’s Theology of Interpretation (Ashgate, 2007). (2) The Center for Barth Studies website also has the full schedule for the 2008 Barth conference posted, along with a link to online registration. (3) PTS has partnered with Microsoft “to digitize a large number of materials in the public domain from the collection of the Seminary library.” I’m very excited about this, as it will make many excellent theological resources widely available to pastors and students across the world. Way to go PTS!

Word and Spirit in Ecclesiology  The pattern of relation between Word (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit that Congar sees in Christology is replicated in ecclesiology. Just as the missions of the Son and Spirit are united in Christology, they continue in “operative unity” with reference to the church as “the two ‘hands’ proceeding from the Father [who] do conjointly whatever the Father…wishes to do.”[1] What more can be said about this relation?  It was seen in the above discussion of Christology that Congar thinks of Jesus as ontologically or hypostatically the Son of God but then also as the Son of God in actuality for us and our salvation on the basis of the Holy Spirit’s work. There is a sense in which this can be thought of in terms of objective and subjective poles. Jesus is the Son of God objectively on the basis of the incarnation and hypostatic union, an activity of the second person of the Trinity, and Jesus Christ is the Son of God subjectively on the basis of...

This is one of those especially good little fine-print sections that Barth is wont to give us from time to time, and which we are wont to too easily breeze past. Church Dogmatics II/1, 193. "It would be a serious misunderstanding of the Deus definiri nequit [Editorial Note: “God cannot be defined”] if we were to conclude from it that theology and proclamation must be completely silenced. The positive origin and meaning of the matter would then not be understood. Deus definiri nequit is, rightly understood, the confession of God’s revelation by which we certainly affirm that the incapacity of our own viewing and conceiving of God is disclosed, but by which the mouth is not stopped by opened for the delivery of the divine mandate. And again, it would be a misunderstanding if the conclusion were to be drawn from the Deus definiri nequit that all theology and proclamation has to take the form only of negative statements, and that in this form, as “cataphatic” theology, in the f...

It has been recently brought to my attention that a congress will be held next week at Sofia University (Bulgaria) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's birth. Merleau-Ponty was a French phenomenologist in the school of Husserl, was an associate of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and had affinities with Heidegger as well. If you are in interested in learning more about the congress, you can check out its website , which includes a schedule . You might also be interested in checking out the university's website . Thanks to my frequent commentator "Luke" for alerting me to this congress. He is presenting a paper there, and perhaps he would be willing to share briefly with us the argument that he will make.

Nick Norelli has recently gone live with the 2008 Trinity Blogging Summit, which he organized and edited. The table of contents will guide you to numerous intriguing and thought-provoking offerings, including my own reflections on Augustine Among the Social Trinitarians . Nick has done a great job with this summit, and I highly encourage you to surf over and check it out. I would particularly enjoy seeing comments on my contribution with which to engage. So, don't be shy. Finally, I am extremely gratified by the immense proliferation of theo-blog collaborative endeavors such as this since the First Annual Karl Barth Blog Conference was held here at DET last June. The 2008 Barth Blog Conference is coming, but first we have to Balthasar Blog Conference coming soon from David D. over at Fire & Rose