God and Dispositions: Edwardsean Metaphysics (Part IV of IV)

Rev. John J. Bombaro
In the first three parts of this series, Rev. Bombaro discussed the theocentric metaphysics, the aesthetics, and the Scholastic philosophical heritage of Jonathan Edwards, colonial intellectual and revivalist preacher. Here, in the final installment, Bombaro shows how Edwards's notions of 'excellency', idealism, and law-like relational dispositions work together to make manifest the glory of God.

The Becomingness of God: Jonathan Edwards’s Metaphysics (Part III of IV)

Rev. John J. Bombaro
In the first two installments of this series, Rev. Bombaro discussed the theocentric metaphysics and aesthetics of Jonathan Edwards, one of colonial America's greatest preachers and scholars. Here, Bombaro juxtaposes the language of dispositions that Edwards uses to describe God with its Scholastic philosophical heritage, reminding us of Edwards's peculiar vantage point at the cusp of modernity.

Literature and the Contract of Eternal Society

Russell Kirk As a young man Russell Kirk traipsed over the braes of East Ayrshire, Scotland, to a tiny village with a rich history. Known to Dr. Johnson as the residence of his friend Boswell's family, the place had, by Kirk's time, little left of its former vitality. Worse, few seemed to care: there was a new cinema a few towns over, and that was, well, new, if nothing else. In this essay from 1969, Kirk argues that community decline cannot be understood - let alone reversed - without participation in the ever-threatened tradition of literary continuity.

Divine Comprehensiveness and Edwardsean Panentheism: The Formulation of Jonathan Edwards’s Theocentric Metaphysics (Part II of IV)

John J. Bombaro
Scholar and minister in colonial New England, driving force of the First Great Awakening, and finally president of Princeton University, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was one of early America's most important intellectuals. In this second of four articles, Rev. John J. Bombaro takes us beyond the sermons and into a deep metaphysical panentheism and shows us how, in Edwards's theology, it is in God that we live and move and have our being.

Stand, Bow, Prostrate: The Prayerful Body of Coptic Christianity

Bishoy Dawood Many of us tend to look at prayer life as a mental thing: we praise, we thank, we confess to, and we confide in God – with words. And yet, while we think or pronounce our prayers, our bodies, too, are at work expressing and shaping our souls. In the Coptic tradition, liturgical postures and gestures involve the whole person, proclaiming and realizing the union of body and soul. It is in just this unity that God creates and saves the human person.

‘I Make All Things New’: Reflections on Time in The Brothers Karamazov

Samuel McClelland Our poems, songs, and tales give us a sense that there is continuity in history and that we fit into it. But what sort of continuity? And what, if anything, should we do about it? In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky grapples with some of the most compelling meta-narratives that have ever shaped our experience of life as temporal beings.

Stripped-Down Gnosticism

Brian Lapsa
Billboards confirm the truism that the human body sells - everything from stripteases to "Body Worlds". The body also seems to be behind a faddish fascination with first-millennium sects. But what does ancient Gnosticism have in common with gentlemen's clubs? More, it turns out, than one might at first suspect.

“I must watch over you”: The virtue of familial responsibility

Carrie Frederick Frost Family is on everyone's mind during Christmastide, whether it be the Holy Family of the Christmas story or our own families. But rarely is this topic approached theologically or as a virtue. Read Carrie Frederick Frost's reflection on the under-appreciated virtue of familial responsibility and its great exemplar in the novel Kristin Lavransdatter.

The Historical Jesus cartoon

Ecclesia©

Drawn by Joseph Farris, a staff cartoonist for the New Yorker. His personal website is www.josephfarris.com.

Creaters and idea: The Brothers Price.

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Ecclesia© is an occasional theological cartoon that appears alongside other cartoons in the Clarion Review.

This cartoon may not be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the Clarion Review.… Read more

The Formulation of Jonathan Edwards’s Theocentric Metaphysics (Part I of IV)

Rev. John J. Bombaro, PhD Over the last decade a distinguished company of Edwards commentators have adopted what may be deemed a “new perspective” on the Northampton sage’s philosophical theology, a perspective that proposes a thoroughly modern foundation for his metaphysics. The Ursprung of the new genesis in Edwards studies may be traced to the work of Sang Hyun Lee on the subject of Edwards and dispositions.