Chris, thanks for taking the time for such a fulsome response to my question. I appreciate it. The key reminders, for me, in your response are (i) the ever present dangers of ‘utility’ (I notice it in myself and others regularly) (ii) kenosis as the ‘fullness’ of God rather than a holding back (restraint) of something. In listening to you I realised that in the framing of my question I had conflated two different, but frequently entangled questions. I have spent my whole life railing against people who justify violence on the basis that ‘God ordered the slaughter of men, women, children and beast (and even his own Son)’. Why? ‘Because God is ‘free’ to do whatever God wants’. And i now realise this was lurking behind my question about God’s freedom. But i see now it is actually rooted in a different question, which is about hermeneutics and ‘literal’ vs ‘literary’ readings of scripture, which is another topic you have been speaking to helpfully recently. Many thanks.
This was fantastic, thank you Chris. I haven't known quite what to make of those more Reformed/Calvinist moments in Jenson's work, so this was very helpful!
Chris, thanks for taking the time for such a fulsome response to my question. I appreciate it. The key reminders, for me, in your response are (i) the ever present dangers of ‘utility’ (I notice it in myself and others regularly) (ii) kenosis as the ‘fullness’ of God rather than a holding back (restraint) of something. In listening to you I realised that in the framing of my question I had conflated two different, but frequently entangled questions. I have spent my whole life railing against people who justify violence on the basis that ‘God ordered the slaughter of men, women, children and beast (and even his own Son)’. Why? ‘Because God is ‘free’ to do whatever God wants’. And i now realise this was lurking behind my question about God’s freedom. But i see now it is actually rooted in a different question, which is about hermeneutics and ‘literal’ vs ‘literary’ readings of scripture, which is another topic you have been speaking to helpfully recently. Many thanks.
This was fantastic, thank you Chris. I haven't known quite what to make of those more Reformed/Calvinist moments in Jenson's work, so this was very helpful!
I need to add ‘railing against the idea rather than the people’!