Forging Ploughshares

Christ precedes and makes possible the fact of Scripture, both in its writing and formation, but also in the continuing reading and exegesis of Scripture. This fact is the unifying center of the faith, in answer to the multiplicities of Christian faiths now exposed in this politic moment, pointing to a deep theological crisis.

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In this discussion of Maximus' paradoxical view of the space and time bending elements of the Word/Scripture as the continuation of incarnation, Scripture is set in the context of Christ as Word - the Word incorporating and incorporated into all things.

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This sermon on coming to Christ outside the city (Hebrews 13:12-14) traces the inevitable collapse of every civilization, and the attempt of Republican politicians such as JD Vance, Josh Hawley, and Donald Trump, and cultural warriors like Jordan Peterson and Peter Thiel, to weaponize Christianity to aid in civilizational war is equated with the offer of the Devil to Christ. This is a paraphrasing and reapplication of the important talk of Paul Kingsnorth in a talk at First Things.

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Maximus, unlike N. T. Wright or Peter Enns but like Origen and the Apostles, equates Scripture with the body, soul, and spirit of Christ, treating the inspiration of Scripture as continuing to occur through Christ, and not through the letter. 

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The logic of Christ defeats the necessary logic surrounding death, in which  life is fragmented and sequential in its beginning and end, but Christ's defeat of death introduces an order in which life reigns over death, and in this logic the life of Christ is an eternal reality, bringing together time and eternity, God and incarnation in a reciprocal relation in which beginning and end are united.

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In this conclusion to part 4, Jordan takes on the scholastic notion that creation and incarnation are not a necessity, suggesting that such a notion leaves us with no particular understanding of God or his love.

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The Gospel of John depicts a real world deliverance from fear, real world healing from sin and slavery, and this is captured in John's deployment of Passover and treatment of Isaiah and the Suffering Servant, in which human evil (not God) results in his suffering and God brings mercy and healing from out of his oppression. This stands in contrast to Calvin's depiction of God punishing Jesus because he is identified with the Azazel Goat, identifying him with sin and, in many Calvinist's view, hating Christ. 

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The death of Christ encompasses all dying and the life of Christ encompasses all of life, so that every individual true beginning and end is to be found in Christ.

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Yom Kippur, the sacrifice of the Yahweh Goat and the sending of the Azazel Goat into the Abyss is the primary holy day for understanding the work of Christ. Clearly dividing and understanding the work of each goat arrives at a different meaning then those theories (like Calvin's) which fuse the work of the goats. Christ's life and death, like that of the Yahweh Goat, cleanses from sin, and the result of this cleansing is an end of exile and Sheol (the place of exile). 

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Jordan Daniel Wood explains how Maximus' notion of the end is the beginning constitutes an understanding of salvation that encompasses and goes beyond legal understandings or ideas of Christus Victor.

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