
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
Pelagius agreed with Augustine that sin cannot be a substance, since God doesn’t create evil. For Pelagius, this meant that sin cannot corrupt or wound or weaken human nature since “how could that which lacks substance have weakened or changed human nature.” Augustine’s response is to quote Scripture (Psalm 40), and to point out that absences – such as the absence of food – can affect our existence.
Rusty Reno points out that Augustine’s argument implies a new Christian ontology: “on the question of sin, Augustine pushes the notion of substance or essence into the background and draws the particular grammar of Christian revelation into the foreground. This shift away from substance or essence as the determinate ground of ‘the real’ is, I would argue, characteristic of the Christian theological tradition as a whole.”
Christianity introduced the category of “insubstantial reality,” a category that busts open all Greek metaphysics.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 8:38 am
Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.