Anti-Semitism has practically been embedded into Christian doctrine. As Harrington (2009) points out, “certain Gospel texts have fostered anti-Judaism,” and “one can say that the Gospels may have an anti-Jewish potential,” (p. 1). This is true in spite of the fact that many of the authors of the gospels might have self-identified as Jews, or who were at least writing from a Jewish consciousness and Jewish point of view, for a largely Jewish audience. To extricate anti-Semitism from the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) seems challenging. Harrington (2009) is willing to accept the challenge by… Continue Reading...
on Aristotle’s concept while accommodating the Christian doctrine[footnoteRef:3]. According to Aquinas, the soul was indeed a form, but a special one that could exist briefly without being embodied. In his postulation, human beings are made of body and soul, matter and form and that death entail the separation of the body from the soul[footnoteRef:4]. Therefore, the human body ceases to exist while the human soul survives and keeps existing after death. Aquinas described the human soul as the substantial form and unique among the forms of material substances because it can survive in separation from the… Continue Reading...
masses. When John relays the miracle to his readers, Christian doctrine and community practice were mere seedlings, whereas they are fully manifest now throughout the world. Therefore, the significance of John 6:1-15 is qualitatively different depending on historical context.
Modern readers may also be aware of the instructional components of the miracle of Multiplication. Jesus assumes a position of leadership but with humility and grace, deferring his power to God of course but also refusing to allow the multitudes to make of the miracle more than it is. As Moloney points out, John emphases Jesus’s knowledge and competency, and… Continue Reading...
