African Emigration?

Last updated on: November 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

African immigrants to the US are preparing to leave in the wake of Trump’s victory, reports Quartz. Though not specifically a target of Trump’s assaults on immigrants, they feel they are not welcome. That would be unfortunate, since Africans are among the most educated and qualified immigrants in the country: “Nigerians-Americans, the largest African immigrant group, are among the most educated groups in America with nearly two-thirds holding college degrees and higher levels of education have brought with it higher... Read more

Natural gessa

Last updated on: November 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In a critique of Locke’s theory of consent (and more extreme varieties), Stephen RL Clark (Civil Peace and Sacred Order) invokes the ancient Irish system of gessa (s. geis). These are obligations placed “chiefly on great chieftains and warriors, to do or forbear, with the mythological sanction that a violation of gessa will lead immediately to death, and the psychological that such violation precisely violates the individual’s own sense of self-worth, courage, identity. A chief is known to be doomed... Read more

Girard’s Achievement

Last updated on: November 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Gil Bailie notes in his recently published God’s Gamble (25, 27) that modern thinkers have often pointed to the similarities between gospel and myth as evidence against the uniqueness of Christian faith: “The anthropological discovery of the paschal structure in extant remnants of archaic religion appeared to present a serious challenge to the claim of uniqueness. This difficulty was compounded by the fact that the defense of Christian uniqueness would increasingly have to be made in a world that was... Read more

Preaching to Kings

Last updated on: November 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Early medieval evangelists had theological reasons for targeting their evangelistic efforts to kings. Kings were heads of political bodies; convert the head, convert the body. In a summary of the Carolingian Renaissance, James Hunter (To Change the World, 59) offers a more pragmatic reason for the tactic: “the monasteries were outposts of evangelization. In this, the monks focused on the regional and local aristocracy rather than on the rusticus, the common people. As a rule, the higher up in the... Read more

Social Sources of Reformation

Last updated on: November 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

James Davison Hunter calls attention to the urban setting of the Reformation (To Change the World, 65): “During the sixteenth century, international commerce expanded dramatically. In Eastern Europe and in France, growing revenues accrued to the benefit of the aristocracy who, in turn, used their wealth to solidify their political control over their territory. However, in central and northern Europe, the primary beneficiary of this growing wealth was a class of merchants, entrepreneurs, and exporters and importers dispersed through a... Read more

American Infrastructure

Last updated on: November 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his history of American lighthouses (Brilliant Beacons), Eric Jay Dolin describes mid-19th century conflicts over the American lighthouse system. It sounds familiar—conflicts between those who wanted to rationalize and those who preferred the ramshackle system already in place; conflicts between technological innovation and traditional methods; conflicts between Europeanizers and Americanizers, between a defiant establishment facing agitation from the fringes; a conflict of expertise v. common sense and American know-how. One of the main players in the debate was William... Read more

Proto-Temple Theology

Last updated on: November 17, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

David wants to build Yahweh a house, Nathan the prophet encourages him. Then Yahweh appears to Nathan to correct him and give directions to David. The nighttime oracle is actually two oracles (noted by William Johnstone, 1 & 2 Chronicles). Each has the basic structure of a covenant formula: A declaration of the sovereign; a recital of history; and then the terms of the covenant. Both begin with a “Thus says Yahweh” (1 Chronicles 17:4, 7). Both review Yahweh’s history... Read more

Apocalypse and Reference

Last updated on: November 17, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Apart from dispensationalists, few commentators on Revelation try to match the characters and events of the book to particular people and historical incidents. In the view of many commentators, that would be a violation of the character of apocalyptic literature. Marshall Reddish dismisses popular views of the Battle of Armageddon with this: “they turn the Apocalypse, and indeed the rest of the Scriptures, into a deck of religious Tarot cards whereby the ‘spiritually enlightened’ can ‘predict’ specific events that will... Read more

Atonement on the Ground

Last updated on: November 16, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

NT Wright complains about the marginalization of the Gospels in atonement theology. He doesn’t think it’s an accident. Rather, it’s “the direct, long-term result of the way in which ‘atonement’ has been seen as a transaction taking place, as it were, in midair, with results that likewise are only tangentially related to actual human life, to the ongoing human story” (The Day the Revolution Began, 223). Readers familiar with Wright’s work will recognize here his polemic against the modern separation... Read more

Atonement on the Ground

Last updated on: November 16, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

According to Romans, what is the gift of God?