RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
Instead of giving us Plato's Two Worlds, Horton shows us Paul's Two Ages. It is this which structure the rest of theological prolegomena. Horton is not giving us a systematic theology, but showing what theology would look like using the Covenant.
Eschatology after Nietszsche
Horton does not shrink from the challenges offered by Feuerbach, Nietzsche, and Derrida. In fact, he mostly agrees with them! If we see Christian theology--particularly Christian eschatology--as dualistic, then it is hard to jump over Lessing's Ditch. Pace Derrida, the theology of the cross demands "deferral" against all theologies of glory, of any subsuming the many/now into the One/not yet (24).
It is with the Apostle Paul and the Two Ages that we are able to overcome these dualities without reducing identity and difference into one another. Horton points out that "above and below" are analogical terms, not ontological ones (and while he doesn't make this conclusion, this allows Christianity to avoid the magical connotations of the Satanic "as above so below" formula; covenant is always a war to the death with magic religions).
The Platonic Vision
Further developed in this contrast between is the difference (!) between covenantal hearing and Platonic (Greek) vision.
A Pauline Eschatology is able embrace both arrival and differance: the age to come arrives in the first fruits in Christ's resurrection, yet it is deferred until the consummation of the ages. Horton further notes,
Drawing upon Vanhoozer, Ricoeur, and Wolterstorff, Horton outlines the basics of Speech-Act theory. He proposes (correctly, I think) this model as fitting with the covenantal drama he outline earlier. He hints at how speech-act is able to overcome challenges from postmodernism: "But unlike deconstruction, speech-act theory locates the activity in actors (sayers) and not in signs (the said) (126).
Horton ends with suggesting how a covenantal, speech-act hermeneutics would be lived out within the church. This book truly was a bombshell. If Horton's arguments stand, the biblical covenantal religion is the only option for man. Conversely, those traditions built upon Platonic and Hellenic frameworks must fall.
Eschatology after Nietszsche
Horton does not shrink from the challenges offered by Feuerbach, Nietzsche, and Derrida. In fact, he mostly agrees with them! If we see Christian theology--particularly Christian eschatology--as dualistic, then it is hard to jump over Lessing's Ditch. Pace Derrida, the theology of the cross demands "deferral" against all theologies of glory, of any subsuming the many/now into the One/not yet (24).
It is with the Apostle Paul and the Two Ages that we are able to overcome these dualities without reducing identity and difference into one another. Horton points out that "above and below" are analogical terms, not ontological ones (and while he doesn't make this conclusion, this allows Christianity to avoid the magical connotations of the Satanic "as above so below" formula; covenant is always a war to the death with magic religions).
The Platonic Vision
Further developed in this contrast between is the difference (!) between covenantal hearing and Platonic (Greek) vision.
A Pauline Eschatology is able embrace both arrival and differance: the age to come arrives in the first fruits in Christ's resurrection, yet it is deferred until the consummation of the ages. Horton further notes,
Speech-Act
Drawing upon Vanhoozer, Ricoeur, and Wolterstorff, Horton outlines the basics of Speech-Act theory. He proposes (correctly, I think) this model as fitting with the covenantal drama he outline earlier. He hints at how speech-act is able to overcome challenges from postmodernism: "But unlike deconstruction, speech-act theory locates the activity in actors (sayers) and not in signs (the said) (126).
Horton ends with suggesting how a covenantal, speech-act hermeneutics would be lived out within the church. This book truly was a bombshell. If Horton's arguments stand, the biblical covenantal religion is the only option for man. Conversely, those traditions built upon Platonic and Hellenic frameworks must fall.
