DET

Modern theology has demythologized the old yarn that cats enjoy nine literal lives, New Age philosophy notwithstanding. Carpe diem! You only live once. The particularly modern emphasis would treat the "nine lives" trope as metaphor: Instead of deferring their deepest hopes for eight lines yet to come -- recall the old quip about "catnip in the sky, by and by" -- our feline friends should reinterpret the myth, existentially, to focus on the multiple possibilities for authentic existence in this life . (I will not engage here -- or anywhere else, for that matter -- the perennial debate about whether and how the scope of the general resurrection might encompass our animal companions.) In his amazing book, Death, the Riddle and the Mystery , Eberhard Jüngel argues that, somehow, our temporal existences as a whole will be resurrected into eternity. Or we might frame the matter as some process theologians do: God subjectively remembers the life events and experien...

A week after the massacre of nine black people by a white racist killer with a gun during the Wednesday evening Bible Study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, I found myself walking along Witherspoon Street in Princeton with several hundred other people. I was up in New Jersey from North Carolina for the Barth Conference, but I was using that as an opportunity to visit my parents who live in a town a couple miles away from Princeton. It was on the Tuesday evening of the conference when I was visiting with my folks when my father told me about a march in honor of the Emanuel Nine starting at Mt. Pisgah AME Church on Witherspoon, ending in Palmer Square along Nassau Street. I knew I had to go. There wasn't much inner conflict within me, although I would be missing the Will Willimon lecture I was looking forward to. I knew I had to go. I had attended Princeton Seminary, I had grown up in Central New Jersey, this part of the state was my home, I had worshiped at Mt. Pisgah a...

…or, Something to keep you busy over the weekend… …or, The Past Fortnight in the Theoblogosphere. Well, it’s been more like two months than like a fortnight, but oh well. Things happen. There are classes to teach, books to read (and write), etc. The good news is that we’ve had some great posts since the last link post , both here at DET and in the wider theological interwebs at large. So sit back, buckle-up, and get ready for this batch of links! First, here’s what we have been up to here at DET: Reading Scripture with John Calvin: Malachi 2:17–3:3 Academy of Parish Clergy Books of the Year for 2014 (Part 1) What Am I Reading? Kimlyn Bender on “Confessing Christ for Church and World” Wild Ideas about Pannenberg's 'Supposed' Hegelianism Once upon a time John Calvin wrote an academic rejection letter… Academy of Parish Clergy Books of the Year for 2014 (Part 2) Barth and MacIntyre on Tradition – More from Kimlyn Bender Karl Barth Conference 2015: A Sneak Peak ...