Hope is an ordinary part of human agency. When we judge that the circumstances are right, and that we have sufficient resources of strength to act, we embark on a specific course of action in hope of completing it. We go to the grocery store, expecting that it will have the ingredients we need to […]
Notes on Book IV of the Psalter
One of my long-term research projects is a book on the divine attributes. The operating methodological thesis of the project is that learning to speak rightly of God (theology) requires learning to read the Bible rightly (hermeneutics). Related to that project, below are some notes, summarized under six headings, that I’ve put together on how […]
Reading Scripture in faith, love, and hope
Over the past several weeks I’ve taken up a research topic that I haven’t worked on directly in several years, namely, theological interpretation of Scripture. My specific focus has been the place of the “rule of faith” in biblical interpretation. Since at least the second century, the rule of faith has functioned, among other things, […]
Oliver O’Donovan on good biblical interpretation
I’ve been re-reading Oliver O’Donovan’s trilogy on moral theology over the past few weeks (see here, here, and here). These volumes are an example of Christian theology at its best: deeply informed by scriptural exegesis, conversant with a wide-range of classical and contemporary theological and philosophical resources, profound in theological judgment, elegant in architectonic structure. […]
“Perfectly sufficient for himself and for us”: Petrus van Mastricht on the doctrine of God
Petrus van Mastricht begins his treatment of the doctrine of God by means of brief exegetical comments on Hebrews 11:6: “for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” According to Mastricht, this verse reveals three truths about God that are essential to saving […]
The humility of God
“Humility” might sound like a strange attribute to predicate of God. Two recent studies suggest otherwise. Grant Macaskill’s The New Testament and Intellectual Humility is not a study of divine humility per se. Its broad concern is the nature and cultivation of humility as an intellectual virtue. Because of his commitment to theological interpretation of […]
