Reflections of the Kingdom

Understanding the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Forms, Features, Framings, and Functions by Douglas S Huffman My rating: 5 of 5 stars “In the Old Testament the New is concealed, in the New the Old is revealed” (Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet) literal: New Testament in the Old lies, the Old Testament in the New is clear. - St. Augustine, Quaest. in Hept. 2,73: PL 34, 623; cf. DV 16. Within the Christian faith, there is an obvious connection between what is commonly referred to as the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT), with many of the NT authors being raised and well versed in the OT Scripture that they frequently referenced to varying intentions and purpose (hence the quote from St Augustine above). Recently there has been a resurgence of sorts to the intertextuality between the two in Christian studies and Huffman does a remarkable job presented the current state of research in an accessible ...

The Old Testament as Literature: Foundations for Christian Interpretation by Tremper III Longman My rating : 4 of 5 stars Ultimately the Old Testament is a collection of written works designed to communicate some idea or concept to a particular audience. The tools used by the various authors and redactors are not new; they relied upon the same forms and techniques used in contemporary literature that were already well known to their audience … sending signals to their readers to enable them to correctly interpret the intending meaning of the text. While much of the text has developed over time, and many scholars seem to be focused on extracting the original text and meaning, the author here recommends that we focus on the final version and how it has been traditionally interpreted through the ages since as a starting point. Part One covers the current state of scholarship for studying the Old Testament as Literature, including some background on how ...

Religious Appeals in Power Politics by Peter S. Henne My rating: 3 of 5 stars Book : *** Performance : *** An Interesting Look at the Use of Religious Appeals for Political Persuasion This is primarily an academic exercise that looks at the use of religious appeals in three (3) specific instances and draws a few inferences from that. As such, the material is fairly dry, but interesting if you actually enjoy political analysis in any form. Generally we are first given some context of the situation from which the religious appeal is used, followed by how the religious appeal was constructed and finally an analysis of how effective the religious appeal was. In some respects, the targeted view here makes it difficult to make any over arching generalization outside of sometimes it works as expected and sometimes it doesn’t, but such appeals can’t be ignored within the political process. There primary explanation for this is a combination of source credibi...

After four (4) years of formation, the date for my ordination to the Permanent Diaconate of the Archdiocese of Boston is set for 10:00 am, Saturday, September 21, 2024 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross  in Boston MA.  The Mass is expected to last for approximately 2 hours and will be followed by a reception for my family, friends and guests at the VFW Post in Marblehead MA at 2:00 pm.  My Mass of Thanksgiving will be the following Sunday, September 22, 2024 at the 9:00 am family mass for Our Lady Star of the Sea in Marblehead.  Invitations will go out later this summer once we know who the presiding bishop will be.