№ 1: The keys of hell and of death
Newsletter | Christ's conquest of death and our acquiring of a piano
Dear Followers and Supporters,
Jesus came into the world as not just one more Israelite, but as the representative of all Israel. Jesus Christ was Israel, and Israel’s destiny was his destiny. If Israel was to come back from exile, it was necessary that their Christ should go into exile—and come back.
So God sent his Anointed One to the sons of Jacob in the grave of exile, to break open the gloomy prison in which they were held captive; so Isaiah says:
I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places… (Is. 45:2-3)
As Cyrus conquered the citadels of Babylon to free the captives, so has Christ gone down to the very belly of Death and has conquered it from the inside, taking captivity captive. Now, Death has become annexed to the kingdom of Christ, and it is territory that belongs to him:
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Rev. 1:18)
I hope you have had a blessed and merry Easter weekend.
Study update
With my final oral exam just behind me, I have now finished my Philosophy for Theology course for my M.Litt. Perhaps more than any other course I've taken so far, it really has demanded slow reading, careful thinking, re-reading and asking a lot of questions.
This work, however, has been rewarding. The basic concepts such as essences and persons have clear implications for our understanding of the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ.
I have also come to appreciate how the created order reflects the inestimable glory of its Creator. Because every effect in some way resembles its cause, then "every positive perfection in creatures must correspond to… some equivalent perfection in God" (W. Norris Clarke, The One and the Many, 232). Put another way, the resemblance between God and a Rock (e.g., Psalm 19:14) is grounded in the deepest level of reality, and is not merely a figment of an overactive poetic imagination. Rocks can only be strong because God himself has strength to give them.
I still have many questions about Thomas Aquinas and his system of thought, but the initial enquiry has been promising.
While philosophy is finished for now, I have two more weeks of Beginner Latin still to go. I will return to do my final term in September (Lord willing) and thus I will complete my requirements for Latin by the end of this calendar year.
Next term, I will be taking two classes. The first is Early Christian Worship, taught by Dr Matthew Hoskin, whom I also had for my study of Augustine's The City of God a year ago. I am looking forward to getting into the heads of the ancient Church, and seeing how they performed and thought about their liturgy.
The second class is Moral Theology for Counselling with Jim Pocta, which is part of the pastoral ministry component of my M.Litt. I am looking forward to taking the more abstract issues of theology (which has mostly been my focus to this point) and thinking about how these matters bear on the real lives Christians, which are ever a mixture of virtue and vice.
I am also looking forward to attending Davenant House in June and July for my residential courses on Reading the Bible and the World and Protestantism and the Commonwealth. If you're able to support me in this endeavour, I would be ever so grateful!
Aunty Pam's piano
And now, some very happy personal news: Jemimah and I have recently taken possession of an upright piano, formerly belonging to Jemimah's great aunt Pam Douglas.
Aunty Pam happened to be the long-time organist at St Paul's Armidale, where we have been members for just over a year. When she moved out of Armidale to Moree, her piano was donated to the church, where it has mostly been collecting dust.
The extended family was been delighted to learn that the piano has not only gone to a good home, but through a series of providences, it has stayed in the family!
It still awaits its tuning, but it's quite good enough as it is to enjoy playing around with.
Recent work
I have been working on a series of posts reflecting on some of the ways in which the Book of Joshua serves as a retrospective on Israel's history. Most recently, I have reflected on Joshua's own retelling of Israel's history, and his exhortation to them to leave their idols in their past: Drawing a line under the past (19 March 2024).
John Calvin weighs in on the question of how often to have the Lord's Supper: Such a bounteous repast (28 March 2024).
Supporters of Psalter the Earth can also enjoy my essay on Augustine's approach to allegory/typology, in which I consider his allegorical reading of the story of Cain and Abel:
The narrative of Cain and Abel is a story of bloody sacrifice. Augustine’s discussion of sacrifice in connection to Cain and Abel should draw the reader’s mind back to the extensive discussion of sacrifice throughout the previous books of The City of God, particularly in Book X. For Augustine, the true sacrifice is humaniform: Christ offers up to God a living human sacrifice, consisting of himself as head and his people as his body…
God bless,
Sean
