Writer of Fancy: The Playful Piety of Jane Austen

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

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

Against Christianity

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

« Previous Post | Next Post »
« Previous post in category | Next post in category »

Theology - Soteriology: Forgive our debts

Since at least Kant, Western theology has been hesitant to talk about salvation in terms of payment, debt, restitution.  This helps create and reinforce the separation of public and private, of inner and outer: “We have divided the theological confession of sin.  We have invented two parallel worlds, one in which the language of guilt describes our own private emotional state, the other in which the language of credit and debt describes the external world but is not thought to impact our own inner being.”

“Forgive our debts” is a continual assault on this illegitimate dualism, an act of confession that not only seeks reconciliation of God and man but of public and private, inner and outer.