Shane Williamson > Recent Status Updates

In his death on the cross, Jesus anticipates and bears in himself the punishment that will fall on Jerusalem forty years later. In this way, he transforms that event, rendering it not only a punishment for the rebellion of past generations but also a purifying fire capable of producing spiritual renewal. (230)

[Luke-Acts] assesses the Jewish and ecclesial circumstances of his own day with prophetic clarity. He sees the dangers posed by an anti-Jewish reading of Paul, and seeks to counter those threats. He also sees the opportunities opened by the emerging rabbinic movement, and seeks to encourage the ekklēsia to adopt the same attitude toward them as is shown by the father in the parable of the two sons. (228)

If we want to study the everyday mind, we can begin by turning to the literary mind exactly because the everyday mind is essentially literary. (7)

Story is a basic principle of mind. Most of our experience, our knowledge, and our thinking is organized as stories. The mental scope of story is magnified by projection—one story helps us make sense of another. The projection of one story onto another is parable...We interpret every level of our experience by means of parable. (Preface)

Scientific and technological advances, when detached from moral and social progress, end up turning against humanity. (St Paul VI)

The quality of a civilization is measured not by the power of its means, but by the care it is able to offer, by its ability to recognize the other as a face not merely as a function. (75)