Brunner on God's Plan for the World
We live in a vast universe and we are very small in it. We do not see the whole in its entirety. We manage to understand a little of all its complexity. When we ask about the purpose of all that is around us the answer is not clear. We do not know where the world is headed. We do not know where we are going. This is a deep mystery. Read More...
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Brunner on the Mystery of God
If somebody speaks about God as he speaks about his cousin he knows nothing about God. We do not know anything about God unless he reveals it to us. When he reveals himself to us we understand, again, how inaccessible is he for our thinking. He is above our world. He is a mystery. We are not able to unlock the mystery about him. Never. Read More...
Brunner on the Bible as the Word of God
The Christian Church believes that the Bible is the Word of God. The Christians are the product of the Bible. There are Christians because there is the Bible. The Bible is the soil in which the Christian faith grows. The Christian faith is the faith in Christ, and we can find Christ in the Bible, and from there he speaks to us. Read More...
Brunner on the Existence of God
I share with you my thoughts on some of my daily readings. These days I read Emil Brunner (Unse Glaube, 1935). I make available these notes because I believe that we have many things to learn from this theologian, even if we disagree at certain points (i.e. the character of revelation, infallibility of Scripture). Enjoy reading!
If somebody asks about God's existence the polite answer is silence, and the proper answer is 'You fool!' God is not an object of knowledge; we cannot investigate God as we do with people, objects or natural phenomena. God is not from this world, he is not of this world, he is not an object among other objects. That is why, he can't be the object of our knowledge. Read More...
The existence of God
If somebody asks about God's existence the polite answer is silence, and the proper answer is 'You fool!' God is not an object of knowledge; we cannot investigate God as we do with people, objects or natural phenomena. God is not from this world, he is not of this world, he is not an object among other objects. That is why, he can't be the object of our knowledge. Read More...
Life, good, and blessings
The theological horizon for life in the people of God is given at the end of Deuteronomy. The chapters 28-30 are a summary of the first five books in the Bible, focusing on the faithfulness to the covenant. The prophets, Jesus and the apostles understood their ministries in the light of this theological horizon. Read More...
The Cross to Rome, Studies in Romans
The Early Christians took their 'good tidings' to Rome. Their main spokesman was Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. In his Letter to the Romans he touches on the theme of the cross. This is the subject of this collection of studies.
This book is available HERE.
Again on Descartes' Method
Descartes method of doubting exposed in the Mediations worked in the following way. His intention was to doubt every proposition he was able to. For that he used two conjectures: the conjecture of the dream, and the conjecture of the evil demon. All his knowledge can be just a dream or all his knowledge can be a big lie because some evil demon is devoted to deceive him. Descartes’s point with these two conjectures was to show their bizarreness. He needed a measure of certainty that goes beyond everything, even reaching the incredible and the bizarre. Read More...
The Son from Above
This paper is in the area of New Testament Christology. It is a comparison study on some of the main christological texts, namely, Philippians 2 and John 1. The main Christological outlook of New Testament is present in these texts, so this study will help in understanding of what we have in this area of New Testament study. These samples illuminate the concepts and the contexts in which New Testament tackles this subject. The area covered is large, Pauline and Johanine communities at worship and reflection. I will approach them in the accepted historical order of their writing: Philippians 2 and John 1. I will focus on their specific outlook, their relationship with the supposed intended setting, their common ground, and their particularities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the variety of ways in which Christ was seen and integrated in the early Christian matrix.
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Philippians 2.5-11 - The Christ event and life as a citizen
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Paul and his Travels: from Perga to Antioch of Pisidia
Next episode (Acts 13.13-52) is crafted by focusing on Paul and the recurring ways of his ministry (Barrett 1994, 625). The others are described as ‘his companions’ (οἱ περὶ Παῦλον), and from among them John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but they went on. We have a movement from geography, to dedication for mission, to a service in synagogue. From that service the focus is on the sermon Paul delivers as they are invited to have a ‘word of exhortation’ (λόγος παρακλήσεως). The people in the synagogue are a mixture, as Paul mentions at the beginning of his word: Israelites and others who fear God (οἱ φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν). We have a long sermon on the way God dealt with his people: from the election, to Exodus, wandering through wilderness, giving them the land of Canaan; judges, monarchy and Messiah. Four names are mentioned in this overview of Jewish history: Samuel, Saul, David and Jesus; a prophet, two kings, and a Savior. Saul is removed but David is a man after God’s heart and from his seed will come the Savior of Israel. Read More...
Paul and his Travels: from Antioch to Cyprus
Paul was called by the resurrected Christ to be his apostle to the Gentiles but now the Church in Antioch is guided by the Spirit to send him, together with Barnabas, in this mission to Gentiles. Thus, the call of Christ is working together with the commissioning of the Church in someones life and ministry. We know things about the ministry in Antioch; prophets and teachers (προφῆται καὶ διδάσκαλοι) are mentioned. Are they the leadership of the Church? Perhaps not, but the mention to them it is sufficient to say that, very early on, there were such ministries/groups. Read More...
Descartes's Arguments for the Existence of God
Descartes in Meditation III offers two separate arguments for the existence of God. The first starts with the fact that everyone of us has an idea of God, and the second starts with the fact that it is certain that I exist.
The steps of the first argument are like this:
I have an idea of an infinitely perfect substance / such an idea must have a cause / from nothing nothing comes / so the cause of an idea must have at least as much formal reality as there is subjective reality in the idea / I am a substance, but I am not perfect / so I could not be the cause of this idea / so there must be a formal reality that is an infinitely perfect substance / so God exists. Read More...
The steps of the first argument are like this:
I have an idea of an infinitely perfect substance / such an idea must have a cause / from nothing nothing comes / so the cause of an idea must have at least as much formal reality as there is subjective reality in the idea / I am a substance, but I am not perfect / so I could not be the cause of this idea / so there must be a formal reality that is an infinitely perfect substance / so God exists. Read More...
Berkeley between Malebranche and Locke
The role of Malebranche in understanding Berkeley. Malebranche, a follower of Descartes, very influential in France, is important in understanding Berkeley. Malebranche understands ‘what is it for one thing to cause another’ in terms of necessity; it must be, when A happens, B necessary follows. Why is this? Because the only real cause in universe is God, and God sustains the world by recreating it every instant (see Malebranche 1688, 1.10; 2.4; 3.5; 3.16).