Hermeneutica Etcetera: Recent Episodes
Jonathan Dansby
A podcast on theology, philosophy, interpretations, and so forth. Blogs and resources can be found on my website, https://hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/.
Greetings! In this episode we talk about several things as we try to wrap up the class:
- the Creed's "incorporation" of individuals through both "we" and "I" language;
- how not to critique theological positions/arguments/doctrines;
- the relationship between the Creed and ecclesial authority
- the classic "marks" of the Church (one, holy, catholic, apostolic) as ideals and points of tension
- why anyone would stick with the Church at all?
- and the necessity of incorporating both faith and reason, the "spiritual" and the "intellectual" for genuine Christian witness.
Consider heading over to my (infrequently updated) blog at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com
Hello and welcome (back) to Hermeneutica Etcetera Podcast!
In this episode of the podcast we talk about the second half of the fourth article (the article on the Church) of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381): "We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen." We spend most of our time on baptism, forgiveness, and the "amen." Maybe there will be another episode in the future about the resurrection and the world to come!
Don't forget about the resources on the Christian Toolbox page on my blogsite (hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/christian-toolbox)
Aaaaaand welcome back to the podcast! Or simply welcome for the first time!
In this podcast we have a second conversation about the third article of the Creed on the Holy Spirit. The session takes a lot of time to talk about a particular issue in Church history concerning the addition of one little word: filioque ("and the Son")! This one word, like homoousios, has generated a significant amount of controversy because it has to do with the nature of God, this time with "the procession of the Holy Spirit" - How exactly is the Holy Spirit related to the Father and to the Son? We don't answer that question definitively (as if we could!), but we do lay out the issues. We also talk about the Spirit's inspiration of the prophets (and thus, by extension, of the Scriptures). All that and more in this week's episode!
Don't forget about the Christian Toolbox page on my blog at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/christian-toolbox
Welcooooooooome back to the podcast!! In this episode we have our first session on the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. Have you ever prayed to the Holy Spirit? Have you ever "called upon" the Holy Spirit? Sometimes the Holy Spirit slips past our notice unless there is a specific liturgical Sunday dedicated to the Spirit in some way; the three that come to mind are Pentecost, of course, as well as Trinity Sunday and the Feast of the Annunciation (that is the annunciation to Mary concerning the Incarnation). This situation, says Luke Timothy Johnson in his book The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters, is the biggest most significant loss Christianity has suffered: the lack of a robust sense or vivid awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence as the intimate power of the Resurrected Lord. Hope you enjoy the episode!
And don't forget to check out the resources page on my blog: hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/christian-toolbox/
Hey and welcome back!! Hope you enjoy this episode and find it meaningful to your growing understanding of the Christian theological grammar (encompassing both thought and practice, faith and work).
In this episode we muse (I do most of it...) on the intelligibility of the second article of the Creed, namely the last part that starts with "and he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures." We explore that phrase specifically as well as some of the other claims that come up in the last part of the second article on the Son: that he is the eternal King, that he is the righteous Judge, that he is coming again in glory.
Don't forget to check out the resources page on my blog at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/christian-toolbox/
Peace!
This episode is the second of four on the second part of the second article of the Creed, and deals with the last bit from ch.5 of Johnson's The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters. That last bit has to do with the early Christians' experience of the Holy Spirit as the life-giving presence of risen Lord among his people. This "power" manifests itself primarily in "salvation" or "rescue" or "deliverance" which the Creed says is really the purpose ("for us and our salvation") of the Son's incarnation as Christ Jesus. What a radical, cosmic claim! Hope you enjoy the episode!
Be sure to check out the theological resource page on my blog at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com
Thanks for joining us this week on the podcast! This class session is the first of four sessions we'll be spending on the second part of the second article of the Creed. In other words, the human career of Jesus, the incarnate Son, we'll take in two parts, the descent ("down from heaven...became man...suffered and was buried") and the ascent ("he rose again...ascended into heaven..."), and we'll spend two sessions, roughly, on each part. And, just as a reminder, the second article of the Creed is the article on the Second Person of the Trinity, and the first part of the second article deals with the divinity of the Son, which you can find in earlier episodes.
Don't forget to take a look at the resources page at my blog at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com
Hey there! Long time no speak!
In this episode, the class dives into the rest of the first part of the second article of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). If you haven't listened to previous episodes, go do that! They lay the groundwork for what this episode (and all the rest to come!) will talk about.
More specifically, this episode gets into what we mean when we say Jesus is "Lord" and "Christ," and what we mean when we say Jesus is "God" and "Light" and "Only-begotten" and "not made." We've spoken about Jesus, the Incarnate Son, as "homoousious" or "of one/same essence" with God the Father, so I don't talk about it in this episode.
But, the big idea of the class, and really of the whole course, is that the "framers" of the Creed did not invent this stuff! They are trying to make the same "judgments" (decisions about Jesus, especially, but also about the Father, Spirit, and the Church) that Scripture is making, even if they have to do it in different "conceptual terms" (like with homoousios, a word which does not appear in the New Testament). This first part of the second article of the Creed draws especially from John's Gospel when speaking of Jesus as "(true) God" and "Light from Light" and as "of one essence with the Father" (cf. Jesus' statement in John that he "and the Father are One").
At any rate, I hope this episode is a genuine help to you as you read Luke Timothy Johnson's book The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters, which I've been using as the general frame/guide for the class.
Be sure to check out my theological resources page at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com
In this episode, I walk through the puzzle I'd been working over in ch.4 of Luke Timothy Johnson's The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters. We talk about some important questions to consider when taking an historical-theological look at the Creed... and we get side tracked a little bit, but I wrap those loose ends up a bit and connect them to the Creed in the last 20 minutes or so.
During the conversation, I make reference to Larry Hurtado's book, One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism. It is an excellent book for those seeking scholarly engagement on an important historical and theological question.
Be sure to check out the resources page at my blog, https://hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/christian-toolbox/
This is a supplemental episode rounding off our discussion of the first article of the Creed. This episode is pretty long and pretty detailed, so you can take your time getting through it if necessary! We'll be ready to tackle the next articles of the Creed (on the Son, Spirit, Church, etc.) now that we've discussed the sine qua non, "that without which, nothing," of Christian theological grammar (both what Christians say/believe and what they do/practice). In other words, the first article of the Creed is the source and goal of the rest of the Creed's affirmations and the realities to which it points.
You can check out my blog at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com
Thanks for tuning in!
This is the eighth session in the class I'm teaching on the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). I'm using Luke Timothy Johnson's book, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters, as the basic framework/resource for the class. In this episode, we cover a couple more claims from the first article of the Creed, and I will publish a supplemental episode covering the rest of ch.3.
Hey! Thanks for tuning in! Whether you're new or have been following along with the sessions, I'm teaching a class on the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). In this week's episode, we start talking about the articles of the Creed, starting with the first article on God the Father.
The first article of the Creed is THE sine qua non (without which, nothing) of the rest of the Creed and, arguably, of all of Jewish and Christian tradition. “It is the root out of which all the rest grows” (Johnson, p65). It contains, as a whole, the first critical theological judgment necessary for the development of an orthodox Christian theological grammar. Employing the linguistic principles discussed previously (i.e., positive, negative, and analogical language) we can affirm that the Creed, while not exhaustive or “full,” still speaks truly of the One God.
Here is the passage of Luke Timothy Johnson's book, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters, which I read in the second half of the class:
“My aim [in the commentary to follow] is…to provide Christians a better sense of [1] what the words they declare each week in the liturgy mean, [2] how they are grounded in Scripture, [3] how they express the experience of the church, and [4] how they affect the way one lives as a creedal Christian” (p65; emphasis and numbering added). This is the framework for the rest of the book and will provide a nice handy "heuristic" for the rest of the class. So buckle up, 'cuz it's going to be a wild ride from here on in!
You can find resources for further study at my blog, hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com.
As the episode title reads, this is SUPPLEMENTAL to previous class sessions. So, if you haven't listened to those earlier episodes, you should probably do that for this one to have some context.
I pretty much summarize ch.2 from Luke Timothy Johnson's book, The Creed, so it also functions like a reading companion for that chapter. All the episodes I'm recording are meant to help people stick with Johnson's conversation/commentary/investigation, so I hope you can get the book and follow along!
Be sure to check out the resources page on my blog, hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/christian-toolbox/
peace!
Be sure to follow this episode up with the SUPPLEMENT I recorded for this episode. It fills out the rest of ch.2 in Luke Timothy Johnson's The Creed so that we can dive right into ch.3 in the next episode.
Don't forget to check out the Christian Toolbox page on my blog at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/christian-toolbox/
Also, don't forget to check out episode 91 of the podcast Pints With Aquinas hosted by Matt Fradd.
In this class session we talk about lots of important things: the difference/relationship between "positive" and "negative" theology (aka, kataphatic and apophatic theology), Arianism and modalism (both of which are heresies), the relationship between faith and science (both of which we can say are scientia, ways of knowing the same world differently) as represented in the Christian theological phrase fides et ratio, "faith andreason." If you need some extra info on the two heresies mentioned in the episode, go look at Pints With Aquinas episode 91: "10 Heresies every Christian should know about, with Trent Horn" hosted by Matt Fradd.
Be sure to check out my blog at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com where you can find more resources for digging down deep into the Church's Great Conversation, part of which is influenced by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a selection of which appears as a prayer at the beginning of this episode (from his work Mystical Theology, ch1):
"O Trinity, beyond being, beyond divinity, beyond goodness, and guide to Christians in divine wisdom, | direct us to the mystical summits more than unknown and beyond light, There the simple, absolved, and unchanged mysteries of theology lied hidden in the darkness beyond light of the hidden mystical silence, | there, in the greatest darkness, that beyond all that is most evident exceedingly illuminates the sightless intellects, there, in the wholly imperceptible and invisible, that beyond all that is most evident fills to overflowing the sightless intellects with the glories beyond all beauty. | This is my prayer. ..." (in William Placher, Readings in the History of Christian Theology, vol 1, p82)
Welcome back to the latest episode of Hermeneutica Etcetera! This episode continues the series of classes I am conducting of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381).
A great little reference tool for this episode and others to come will be an episode from the show Pints With Aquinas that briefly names and describes ten heresies that have arisen in the Church: (https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ppYDqu1GZBYMHamhZgTDn) #pintswithaquinas #pwa #mattfradd #trenthorn
In the episode I read a segment from St. Ignatius of Antioch's Letter to the Trallians, copied below and which can be found in full at the links below:
- Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Trallians, 9 - “Be deaf, then, to any talk that ignores Jesus Christ, of David’s lineage, who is of Mary; who was really born, ate, and drank; was really persecuted under Pontius Pilate; was really crucified and died, in the sight of heaven and earth and the underworld. He was really raised from the dead, for his Father raised him, just as his Father will raise us, who believe on him, through Christ Jesus, apart from whom we have no genuine life.” (Placher, Readings in the History of Christian Theology vol.1, p.16; emphasis added)
In addition to the links provided above, the portion of the chapter quoted can also be found here: https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01/anf01.v.iv.ix.html
The blog can be found here (https://hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/) where you can also find links to other resources.
This is the third session of a class I am teaching on The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters, by New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson. Thanks for taking the time to take a listen! I hope these conversations help you engage in the Great Conversation the Church has been having for the better part of 2,000 years.
Here's a link to my blog where I hope to put up new content soon!
This episode is one in a series of episodes that will present class sessions I conduct on "the Creed" (that is, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381). The class will roughly follow a book entitled The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters by New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson. The hope is that these class sessions can act like "conversation partners" for those members who miss the class, and for those listeners who are not members of our church but are interested in "digging down deep" into Scripture and Tradition.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/2021/08/24/off-with-his-head/
I was invited to preach by Calvary Lutheran Church, Richland Hills, TX, several months back on 11 July 2021. The following is an audio version of the sermon I preached. You can find the a video of the sermon here. The lectionary readings for that Sunday were as follows:
- Law/Prophets – Amos 7:7-15
- Psalm – Psalm 85:8-13
- Epistle – Ephesians 1:3-14
- Gospel – Mark 6:14-29
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/2021/08/17/birthdays-of-the-dead/
In this episode of the Hermeneutica Etcetera podcast, I talk with my dear friend Tommy Moehlman about various approaches to reading and interpreting St. Paul the Apostle, that is, different approaches to Pauline theology. We discuss primarily the APOCALYPTIC approaches to Paul's letters (and other streams of interpretation), as well as the limits of interpretation and methodological certainty.
Here are a couple of the conversation partners we discuss more or less at length:
J. Christiaan Beker, The Triumph of God: The Essence of Paul's Thought (1990) and Paul's Apocalyptic Gospel: The Coming Triumph of God* (1982)
Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline* (German original published 1947; English translation published 1949, then republished 1959)
Find more theological stuff at hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://hermeneuticaetc.wordpress.com/2021/08/10/another-shortish-note-on-what-ill-be-doing/