Mere Hermeneutics
Mere Hermeneutics is perhaps Kevin Vanhoozer’s capstone of his decades-long work on theological interpretation. It seeks to answer a deceptively simple question: How can Christians read the Bible as Scripture in a way that is both faithful to the literal sense and centered on Christ? Vanhoozer’s answer is what he calls a “mere Christian hermeneutic”—a set of interpretive principles shared by Christians across denominational traditions.
Vanhoozer contends that the debate between literal and spiritual interpretation typically is framed incorrectly. Many modern interpreters assume that figurative or Christological readings depart from the literal meaning. He argues instead that certain forms of figural interpretation actually fulfill the literal sense. Vanhoozer introduces the idea of the “trans-figural literal sense,” that is, Scripture’s literal meaning includes its place within God’s unfolding redemptive economy. Thus Christological interpretation is not imposed upon the text but arises from the text’s deepest reality.
Flood and Fury
In Flood and Fury, Matthew Lynch calls violence in the Old Testament a “wicked problem”—one that cannot be solved with a single interpretive key. He focuses his study on two instances where God expends his wrath—God judging humanity with a worldwide flood and his later command to Joshua to exterminate the inhabitants of Canaan.
Rather than focusing only on divine judgment, Lynch emphasizes God’s grief over human violence. Genesis presents God not as a capricious destroyer but as one deeply wounded by humanity’s corruption. Genesis 1-2 should operate as the interpretive lens by which we read the flood narratives of Genesis 6-9, and indeed, the rest of the Bible.
Lynch devotes most of his attention to the book of Joshua. He situates the conquest narratives within the rhetoric of the ancient Near East. He also provocatively argues that many descriptions of total destruction resemble conventional ancient military language. Ancient kings regularly claimed complete annihilation even when their enemies clearly survived. This observation does not eliminate the violence but helps explain how conquest rhetoric functioned.
Why We Pray: Understanding Prayer in the Context of Cosmic Conflict
What exactly does prayer do? If God is all-knowing and all-good, then why should we pray? God already knows about the situation and is already committed to doing what is best. So, what are we accomplishing by talking to him about it? John Peckham provides compelling answers to these questions in Why We Pray: Understanding Prayer in the Context of Cosmic Conflict.
Unlike many books that focus primarily on the practice and benefits of prayer, Peckham approaches the subject through his broader theology of the “cosmic conflict” between God and evil. He argues that prayer functions within a world in which God has chosen to work through genuine relationships and delegated agency. Prayer is one of the means by which God legitimately acts within the framework he has established.
Peckham points out that the cosmic battle is not metaphysical, but moral. The omnipotent God, who could instantly wipe out all opposition, has chosen to win by covenantal means. This means that God works progressively, patiently, mediated through human instruments, primarily by means of persuasion. This means that space and time must be given to us to obey or disobey, to accept or reject. God’s power is not impugned. This is the way the Almighty has sovereignly ordained to accomplish his will. In this light, our prayers really do matter.
There Is No Antimemetics Division
There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm (Sam Hughes) is a work of sci-fi horror unlike anything I’ve read before. What if some ideas were so dangerous that to think them could kill you? For readers interested in the intersection of theology, philosophy, and information theory, one of the novel’s most intriguing questions is whether information itself can function like a metaphysical reality. The horror of the book comes from treating ideas not merely as thoughts in human minds but as entities capable of agency, survival, and predation. Here’s idealism run amok. Think George Berkeley having a fevered nightmare.
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