Foundations and Tribunals

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:42 pm By Peter Leithart

The architectural model of building a structure of thought on “foundations” is among the metaphors employed by modern thinkers, and in this as in other areas there was a close alliance of philosophy and political action. Bauman notes that this was particularly evident in various utopian writers of the modern period, who “chose architecture and urban planning as both the vehicle adn the master-metaphor of the perfect world that would know of no misfits and hence of no disorder.” Utopian... Read more

Postmodern critique, postmodern re-enchantment

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:04 am By Peter Leithart

“Postmodernity,” writes Zygmunt Bauman in his 1992 Intimations of Postmodernity , “means many different things to many different people. It may mean a building that arrogantly flaunts the ‘orders’ prescribing what fits what and what should be kept strictly out to preserve the functional logic of steel, glass and concrete. It means a work of imagination that defies the difference between painting and sculpture, styles and genres, gallery and the street, art and everything else. It means a life that... Read more

Speech

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Franz Rosenzweig saw that philosophy proceeds only through humility, which means through speech and dialogue rather than abstract thought: “The ‘speaking thinker’ cannot anticipate anything: he must be able to wait because he depends on the word of the other: he requires time . . . The ‘speaking thinker’ speaks to someone and thinks for someone; a someone who has not only ears but also a mouth.” Read more

Shepherding spirit

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:01 am By Peter Leithart

Thanks to my friend Alex Trochez for stimulating the following line of thought. According to Jordan’s count (confirmed by my own), the phrase “shepherding wind” occurs twice in Ecclesiastes by itself (1:17; 4:6) and 7 times with the word “vapor” (1:14; 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 16; 6:9). In addition, the NASB has the word “wind” another seven times (1:6 [2x]; 5:16; 8:8 [2x]; 11:4-5). Each of these uses translates the Hebrew RUACH (wind, spirit), and the phrase “shepherding wind” is... Read more

Solomonic epistemology

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Solomon pursued knowledge and wisdom, and concluded that the pursuit was no more than vapor and shepherding wind, and besides the more he knew the more pain and grief he suffered (1:17-18). There is so much in this wispy world that we cannot know: Whether the result of our works will be universal love or universal hatred (9:1). The time of our death (9:12). Coming misfortunes (11:2). The path of the wind, the knitting of bones in a woman’s womb,... Read more

Design

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:53 pm By Peter Leithart

John Thackara ‘s In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World , a brief for more human, and more eco-friendly, technology and economy, is full of insights that challenge much of the conventional wisdom about the “information age.” A sampling: We do not live in “the ‘weightless’ new economy we were told the Internet would bring. Rather than the displacement of matter by mind, ife seems to have become heavier – physically and psychologically – than ever . . .... Read more

Beginnings

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:47 pm By Peter Leithart

Solomon captures the aporia of beginnings in Ecclesiastes 3:15: “That which is has been already, and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by.” This not only restates “there is nothing new under the sun” but also suggests that the search for an origin “uncorrupted” by a surplus is elusive, shrouded in the mist. A human life begins when sperm unites with egg. But this human life would not begun unless the man whose... Read more

Sermon Outline, First Sunday After Epiphany

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:01 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION Solomon begins Ecclesiastes talking about the regularities of the natural world (1:3-11), and in chapter 3 turns to the regular rhythms of human life (3:1-8). THE TEXT “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted . . . .” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-22). (more…) Read more

Qohelet and the gospel

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

Provan has this insightful comment: “A central theme of [Jesus’] ministry, enacted in his own life, is that the proper way in which to respond to the nature of reality is to give away one’s life rather than hold on to it, to open our hands and let things go rather than to close our fist around them, grasp hold of them, and try to use them for personal advantage.” Not: Go with the flow. But: Go with the vapor.... Read more

Qohelet, Modernism and Postmodernism

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

Despite the problems with his arguments about authorship, Provan ‘s commentary on Ecclesiastes (NIV Application) is quite good. He rightly translates HEBEL as “vapor” or “breath” rather than as “vanity,” and does a good job of showing how deeply that change transforms our reading of the book. The following are some reflections stimulated by Provan’s commentary, and, again, by James Jordan ‘s BH lectures. 1) One might characterize modernism as the systematic effort to expunge the reality of the vaporousness... Read more