Wednesday, September 30, 2009

[Luther] adds that human language is too limited to express adequately the lofty article of the Trinity; this doctrine so far surpasses human understanding that God as a kind Father will condone stammering and prattling of His children so long as their faith is correct; this term expresses the Church's faith as well as can be done in human language, for the word Trinity conveys the Christian knowledge of God, namely, that the Divine Majesty is three distinct Persons in one divine essence. (St. L. XII:628 f.)
-- F. Pieper, "Doctrine of God" from Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I
If anyone raises the objection that the terms essence and person are not sufficiently restrictive to express the mystery of the unity in the Trinity, then we may answer with Augustine: 'Human language labors under a truly great paucity of words. We speak of three persons not in order to say just that, but rather so as not to be silent altogether (De Trin. V)'
-- F. Pieper, "Doctrine of God" from Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Kingsbury describes the implied reader as the imaginary person in whom the intention of the text is to be thought of as reaching its fulfillment. To read in this way, it is necessary to know everything that the text assumes the reader knows and to "forget" everything that the text does not assume the reader knows. The critic should ask the questions that the text assumes its reader will ask but should not be distracted by questions that the implied reader would not ask. The implied reader, furthermore, is not necessarily to be thought of as a first-time reader. In some instances the narrative text apparently assumes the reader will come to an understanding only after multiple readings.

-- Mark Allan Power, What is Narrative Criticism? Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.