Hello Vivian, The Donne quotation is not from a poem, but from Sermon II, on Isaiah 7.14 preached in 1624. Thank you for dropping past the Blog. There is a link to the Sermon: https://www.biblestudytools.com/classics/the-works-of-john-donne-vol-1/sermon-ii.html

Hello Anne, thank you for the encouragement, and I'm glad you find the posts helpful. Do you have a reference in The Crucified God which relates to your question. That would help to answer more precisely. More generally, Moltmann's Christology is more concerned to affirm the full humanity of Jesus - not so much that he stepped outside his divinity, as that he stepped fully and absolutely into our fallen humanity. Hence the paradox of the title,The Crucified God - both fully human and divine. Moltmann argues here and in other places for the reality of human suffering in the crucifixion being experienced by Jesus the Son of God and Son of Man. The cry of dereliction and God-forsakenness is likewise a recurring theological theme for Moltmann. In that cry Jesus enters into the fullness of human sin, judgement and death and does so as the Son of the Father. But at no stage are we to think that in doing so he stepped outside of his divine nature. I hope this helps.

Thank you WS! Although we are on different sides of the Atlantic, the plight of those who are compelled to leave their homelands carries the same imperatives of compassion, thoughtful strategy, and a refusal to dehumanise vulnerable people. Thank you for your encouragement and appreciation - I've been writing here since 2007, and I'm always the better for hearing from folk like yourself1 Grace and peace from Scotland.

Hello Mark - thanks for your question, and I fully understand the dissonance with 17th C language and a 21st C reading. "Working breast" I take to mean both quickened heartbeat, and the raised emotions of someone anxious for acceptance and reassurance. There's quite a lot of that in Herbert, writing a t a time when devotional feelings and affections were much more explicitly stated. "I will move Thee..." is the stated intent of the supplicant to persuade, influence and move the emotions of God to accept the praise and enable the one who praises. Likewise 'enroll' is to seek commitment and support for the supplicant's goal and intention, that is, that God will enable and accept the praise and gratitude of the worshipper. There is always a sense of unworthiness in Herbert, and likewise a feeling of the inadequacy of his 'utmost art'. Hope that helps.

Hello Cindy, and thank you for your question. I'm a long time reader of Levertov's poems, and student of both her life and work. The post was written out of my knowledge of her and her poetry. However there are several important secondary works: Donna Hollenberg, A Poet's Revolution. The Life of denise Levertov. University of California Press.2013 Dana Greene, Denise Levertov. A Poet's Life. University of Illinois Press, 2012 Michael Murphy and Melissa Bradshaw, This need to dance / this need to kneel. Denise Levertov and the Poetics of Faith. Pickwick (This one is available in Uk on Kindle at a reasonable price) Hope this helps. Denise Levertov, New and Selected Essays. New Directions.

Thanks Donna. I often think these first verses are skipped over, at least in our heads. I've often thought it would dramatise the reading if we had the sound effects of gong and cymbal!

Hello John, and thank you for your question, and for taking time to read and write about the post. I think the transcendent depth Baillie addresses is in God, not in our approach. Both Bailie and Torrance are aware of the need for what calvin called 'accommodation', hence the use of anthropomorphism.While Torrance argued there is no God behind Jesus, he also took immense pains to write and explore the mystery of the Trinity, and the unfathomable depths of love revealed in the incarnate, crucified, risen and ascended Lord. As for the Church's liturgy and song, they too are not reducible to 'humanistic language'. Charles Wesley as one example wrote hymns that celebrated the transcendent mystery, indeed the ineffability of divine love. For myself, I do not see a dichotomy between the language of biblical terminology and the limits of language to capture or encapsulate the full reality of God.

Thanks Ken. One of the reasons the older Dictionary still has considerable value.

Thank you Bob. That too is a powerful interpretation of the Good Friday Christ, and the contrast of triumphal entry and the walk of ignominy up Golgotha. I'll go looking for W R Rodgers. Easter greetings.

Thank you Olivia. Glad you happened by and found something good!

Thanks Anna. Agreed on the prophetic edge of this poem; the prophetic combines the understanding of the past, clear perception of the present, and a hopeful imagination for the future. Re-enchantment with transcendence is both hope and perhaps essential if the world is to survive our human ravaging of it. R S Thomas is one of God's outriders, helping us see and understand the cost and consequences of secularisation's impatience with that which cannot be measured, commodified, exploited, and ultimately consumed. Wonder if the late RST ever read the early Walter Brueggemann?

Thanks for this Bob. I found it fascinating, especially the relation of music to text, and at times the sense that the music was interpreting the scene, mood and circumstances in the story itself. So much to be gleaned, or mined, from such a short text. Thanks again Bob, and all good wishes for your continuing projects.

Incidentally Dave, hope you are keeping well and life is enjoyable, restful, productive, interesting. Choose as appropriate!

Opinions are pretty divided about the architecture Dave. I did most of the research for my first book in Queen Mother Library, especially the basement and stacks which were a treasure trove in which to be let loose. More space, huge upgrade in IT and digital technology required, transitions to new methods of knowledge transfer (e.g. ebooks as opposed to hard copy books, Journals) -not to mention the desire to project an ancient University with a contemporary face. It also has a diversity of study space, seminar rooms, IT and interactive facilities. My admiration for the new building is a mix of all these elements. In Edinburgh, New College was totally redesigned internally because the building could not be replaced - it too has a changed ethos and capacity.