![](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/25414/2026/20260630-071210.jpg\")
Two follow-ups to my post on Robert Jenson. First, and precisely in relation to Glenn Gould, I should have mentioned the prominence of musical imagery in Jens’s own theology: God as fugue, creation as harmony (the latter a major theme in his beloved Jonathan Edwards). There’s a reason Chris Green’s excellent companion to Jenson’s thought is titled The End Is Music.
\n\nSecond, as prickly as Jens could be at times, he was also extraordinarily generous. If you showed up at his office in Princeton and just wanted to shoot the breeze, he’d make clear he had no time for it. But if you came to him with a serious question or asked him to read your work in progress, he would give you his undivided attention. I was present at an AAR panel once where six younger scholars delivered short (c. 15 minutes) papers on a set topic. Then Jens got up and responded to all six papers, making incisive criticisms to be sure, but also reading charitably and offering words of encouragement to his junior colleagues. It was a tour de force of teaching and mentorship.
\n", "date_published": "2026-07-07T15:37:45-04:00", "url": "https://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/07/postscript-on-jenson.html" }, { "id": "http://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/07/you-cant-unhear-robert-jenson.html", "title": "You Can't Unhear Robert Jenson", "content_html": "Alan begins his recent Hedgehog Review essay on Glenn Gould like this:
\n\n“My friend Elizabeth Corey, a pianist as well as a political philosopher, tells me, ‘You can’t unhear Gould.’ A simple but important statement. The music of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould (1932–1982) is so distinctive, so memorable, even today so surprising, that once experienced, it stays in your mind and can easily become the frame of reference by which you evaluate other pianists.”
\n\nWhen I read this, I couldn’t help thinking of the late Robert Jenson (1930-2017), who may be to the theological world what Gould was to music. Like Gould, Jenson could be temperamental, quirky, and demanding. He attacked sentences the way Gould attacked the keyboard: with energy and precision. I may go to my grave still not knowing whether his radical metaphysics of the gospel “rhymes” (a favorite Jensonian metaphor) with the larger Christian tradition. I would like to think it does. He’s sometimes accused of being a Hegelian. But the more salient thinker for him was Luther, and behind Luther, Paul and the gospels. His whole project could be seen as a thought experiment revolving around the question, “what if reality is defined not by ‘being’ or ‘substance’ but by the life, death, and resurrection of this one Jewish man?”
\n\nBut, well … agree with him or not, you can’t unhear Jenson. He writes so clearly that there’s nowhere to hide: when you read him, you can easily identify what the key claims are and where he might be challenged. There’s a sparse, crystalline beauty to his prose: as if Barth’s Dogmatics had been written by Wittgenstein, or possibly Hemingway. One of Jens’s greatest achievements was to have been profoundly influenced by Barth without ever becoming a Barthian. He went his own Lutheran and evangelically catholic way. His theology is “so memorable, even today so surprising, that once experienced, it stays in your mind and can easily become the frame of reference by which you evaluate other theologians.”
\n", "date_published": "2026-07-07T07:51:56-04:00", "url": "https://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/07/you-cant-unhear-robert-jenson.html" }, { "id": "http://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/05/i-say-german-here-because.html", "content_html": "I say “German” here, because most of the time what strikes me is the recycling of tropes from 19th century liberal Protestantism. But the point holds equally for ancient theology. If you want to be a Nestorian, fine. But then at least know you’re being a Nestorian.
\n", "date_published": "2026-07-05T15:52:00-04:00", "url": "https://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/05/i-say-german-here-because.html" }, { "id": "http://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/05/note-to-my-students-a.html", "content_html": "Note to my students: A lot of what one hears from the mainline pulpit nowadays consists of the unconscious repetition of views first stated by some smart German in the 19th century. Almost always, the German said them better. This is why we have courses in systematic and historical theology.
\n", "date_published": "2026-07-05T15:36:01-04:00", "url": "https://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/05/note-to-my-students-a.html" }, { "id": "http://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/04/my-son-and-i-went.html", "title": "Disclosure Day", "content_html": "My son and I went to see Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day last weekend. It was great fun. As many reviewers have noted, there was an air of “Spielberg’s greatest hits” about it, with allusions to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET among others, and a spirit of Indiana Jones throughout (lots of chase scenes).
\n\nThere was some pop theology thrown in there, about the impact the discovery of alien life might have on traditional faith. Most of this fell flat for me. Jonathan Mitchican deals sensitively with these issues in his review in Covenant.
\n\nMostly, though, I ignored the religious aspect and tried to enjoy the movie on its own terms. Emily Blunt is good as always, while Colin Firth is excellent as the heavy who wants to prevent the “disclosure.”
\n", "date_published": "2026-07-04T10:00:20-04:00", "url": "https://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/04/my-son-and-i-went.html" }, { "id": "http://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/02/this-has-to-be-the.html", "content_html": "This hidden gem has to be the best café patio in Toronto. I love to sit here of a morning with coffee, croissant, and a good book. Cafe 23, Queen Street West.
\n\n
Happy Canada Day. It seems a good day to pay tribute to David Cayley, who died on June 10 here in Toronto. I only learned about David’s death last week, just in time to attend the memorial service at St. James Cemetery. I didn’t know David well, but the times I spent with him were delightful. At Ephraim Radner’s and my invitation David attended several theology pubs with our doctoral students, generously sharing his knowledge of Ivan Illich’s thought, his ideas on technology and medicine, and a lot more.
\n\nAt the memorial service, I was chatting with one of David’s musician friends, and mentioned that I was an “Ivan Illich friend.” The man said to me: “Who’s Ivan Illich?” I find this rather wonderful—David moved in many worlds, not all of which were even aware of the others. Michael Sacasas has written movingly about David’s gift for friendship on _The Convivial Society_.
\n\nDavid was playing music with his bluegrass group when he died. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
\n", "date_published": "2026-07-01T20:00:10-04:00", "url": "https://manginaj.micro.blog/2026/07/01/david-cayley.html" } ] }