Hebrew Scripture Theology

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1732

Week 9! Already! And with it, we come to the one of the key themes which distinguishes Jewish and Christian understandings of the Hebrew Bible.

I hope the slightly tweaked structure to class time made an improvement on Monday.

With a title like that, I'm tempted to continue with ... “brace yourself!”

On WebCT you will find (for both DV0160 and P02215 versions of the course) a folder linked for Week 6. The only item in the folder is an MP3 of a sermon you might find valuable to hear in preparation for our Week 6 question, “What does it mean to be human?” More information on it is available on WebCT.

Last week we saw that some of the traditional divine attributes were distinguished on the basis of whether they belonged to reason, or to the realm of the person of faith. In many ways, the theology of “divine presence” belongs decidedly in the latter category.

I have just updated the “Topics” entry for Week 4 on divine attributes. Do have a look at the further suggested readings.

Also, please do not feel constrained to look only at the biblical texts suggested in the weekly topic listings! Follow up passages discussed in the secondary literature you read, and do have a close look at these passages yourself in conjunction with the commentary literature on them.

DjR