User:RobertC/Agency

From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.

I've been wondering about the phrase "space for repentance" in Alma 42:5, especially as it might be related to topics of revelation and covering. This is all related to my thoughts regarding the hardening theme in Isa 6:9ff. I've been thinking about this again recently studying 2 Cor 3:13ff, where the topic of Moses's face being veiled is taken up by Paul (cf. Ex 34:33).

In brief, my thinking is that there is a kind of typology at work between the partaking of the fruit by Adam and Eve in the Garden, and the rejection of the higher law by the children of Israel. In both instances, God granted a space to repent.

This deferral of judgment, following transgression, is a key aspect of grace and forgiveness. John Milbank suggests an interesting connection between these themes that I would like to explore in more depth at some point. For Milbank, gift exchange can be distinguished from economic exchange on the basis of reciprocal giving that involves delay and non-identitical exchange. That is, economic exchange is immediate and involves some identical relation of value. A gift, then, somehow escapes these two features. Delay is intriguingly similar to Alma's idea of "space for repentance."

• A Calvinist response to Milbank can be found here (Modern Theology 21:1, January 2005—the article is by J. Todd Billings).

• See Clark's "Shape of Agency" notes/article