Evening Prayer

Greg Allison’s “Historical Theology:” Prof. Allison deals with Luther, Zwingli and Calvin on the divine and human natures in the hotspot and flashpoint of the Reformation, to wit, the Bone-Munchy-Cruncher issue. Luther believes in the ubiquity, omnipotence, and omnipresence of Christ’s from incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, in the Eucharistic presence and forever (379). Edward Cairns’s “Christianity Through the Centuries:” The Italian Renaissance is discussed. Rich merchants in Florence, Rome and the Curia patronize artists and scholars. 1000s of Greek manuscripts come from fleeing Greeks after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Lorenzo de Medici, Manuel Chrysolarum, Cellini, Machiavelli, Michaelangelo, and Leonard da Vinci make cameo appearances (283). Millard Erickson’s “Christian Theology:” Prof. Erickson asserts the Bible’s view of immanence, but cautions against pantheism. The latter depersonalizes God, he claims. It does do that in some varieties. We’ll get a look at Schleiermacher as well as other decadent views, e.g., process theology and the naturalistic metaphysics, a faith-view (303). Justo Gonzalez’s “History of Christianity: Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation:” The story is continued on Jerome and Paula, his rich girlfriend. They settle in Bethlehem. Jerome takes up the translation of the OT from Hebrew rather than the LXX. He runs into interference, some claiming that he disrespects the OT LXX. Even Augustine complains to Jerome. But, Jerome included marginal notes where different textual traditions came to expression (237).