We saw it sink; the tides took it, the tug of oars between the strand and formlessness that left the sands forlorn; out past the wrack, beyond the harbour-walls’ embrace, the embers ebbed to black. Listen, the land is locked in silence; waves and waders moved as one to cede the shore; the godwits gone,…
Part 4: Symbolism and Conclusions In the previous three installments, we have examined the plausibility structures of women’s ordination (WO), Witt’s view of history, and his handling of Greek philology. We now turn to questions of symbolism, a topic that Witt discusses mainly in dialogue with Roman Catholic authors, especially Manfred Hauke.[1] Hauke’s argument is…
People say there are no longer any ogres left in the world, but it is not true. I have a friend in a distant country who was afflicted by one for some years. Bran had amassed a great collection of historical and artistic material on behalf of his nation and was famous for his work…
PART 3 – ERRORS OF PHILOLOGY Having discussed plausibility structures and history in the previous two parts of this review, we come now to what, for Protestants, will be the central question of the debate: can Witt show that the passages that have long been thought to pose an obstacle to women’s ordination (WO) do…
PART 2: WITT’S CONSTRUCTION OF HISTORY In the first part of this series, we examined the plausibility structures on which Witt’s book relies for its persuasiveness. We saw that Witt teaches a novel modern anthropology: he sees human beings not as fundamentally sexed creatures in a pervasively gendered cosmos, but as individuals who take on…
PART 1: WHY IS WOMEN’S ORDINATION PLAUSIBLE? Icons of Christ : A Biblical and Systematic Theology for Women’s Ordination. Witt, William G. Waco: Baylor University Press 2020. 439 pp. $59.99 (cloth); $44.99 (paper). Professor William G. Witt of Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA, has recently written a new book defending women’s ordination (hereinafter “WO”) to…
PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 At the turn of the twenty-first century, a revival of natural law took place among both Roman Catholics and Protestants. This revival has resulted in many contemporary Christian scholars affirming reason as the means by which “basic moral principles, assumed by and standing in agreement with biblical revelation, are…
“He that will die with Christ upon Good Friday, must hear his own bell toll all Lent…”[1] So begins a Lenten sermon by that most eloquent of Anglican divines, the Rev. Dr. John Donne. Hearing these lugubrious chimes bind us together with Christ’s passion, we are reminded that our living and dying are of a…
Where, O Death, is your sting? If we increase the IV Morphene bolus You won’t feel a thing. There is nothing painful or hateful About this death. Cast your anxieties on Him — Be anxious for nothing. Or X units of…
On Wednesday, Anglicans and other liturgical Christians will begin their second Lent during the interminable season of Covidtide. If ever there were a time to turn our focus away from things temporal to things eternal, now would be it. Even in normal times, picking a hymn for Ash Wednesday poses some unique problems. Many churches…
