Purpose of Kings

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

In an article in Biblica, JG McConville points out that Kings does not offer much hope based on reforming kings. On the contrary, the books shows that the efforts of reforming kings are regularly undermined by their successors. Manasseh is not some strange exception but the norm: “Far from leading the reader consistently to expect salvation for Judah through a Davidic king, it leads him rather to expect the opposite. With the reforming kings there was an intensifying insistence that... Read more

Beds and Bedchambers

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

The word “bed” is used nearly a dozen times in 1-2 Kings, and the uses represent a significant minor motif in these books. The following are some reflections on this motif, in large measure inspired by my students’ work. 1) 1 Kings begins with a report about David’s impotence and his bed-partner Abishag. The fact that he is bed-ridden provides important narrative background to the plot of Adonijah, who takes advantage of his father’s weakness and passivity to launch his... Read more

Christ’s nature

Last updated on: September 22, 2005 at 3:36 pm By Peter Leithart

Conceptual difficulties that arise from attempting to express incarnation in categories drawn from the Greeks. Sarah Coakley points to one such problem in a discussion of the work of Richard Norris on the Chalcedonian settlement. She finds fault with some of Norris historical analysis, charging that he imports post-liberal obsessions into his interpretations of the historical evidence, and she nicely defends the notion that the formulators of Chalcedon thought they were making ontological claims and not merely offering “grammatical” rules... Read more

Christ’s nature

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:49 pm By Peter Leithart

Two Headed Christendom?

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:50 pm By Peter Leithart

The question debated among medieval political theorists was not whether Christendom was a body, ultimately the body of Christ, but whether there was room for more than one “head” of the body. As Otto Gierke summarizes,”Mankind constituted a Mystical Body, whereof the Head was Christ. It was just from this principle that theorists of the ecclesiastical party deduced the proposition that upon earth the Vicar of Christ represents the one and only Head of this Mystical Body, for, were the... Read more

What Is The Church?

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:48 pm By Peter Leithart

“The Bible,” writes Avery Cardinal Dulles, “when it seeks to illuminate the nature of the Church, speaks almost entirely through images, most of them . . . evidently metaphorical.” Citing Pope Paul VI, Dulles lists the following images: “the building raised up by Christ, the house of God, the temple and tabernacle of God, his people, his flock, his vine, his field, his city, the pillar of truth, and finally, the Bride of Christ, his Mystical Body.” Dulles himself examines... Read more

Sex as vestigia trinitatis

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

Barth famously argues there is an I-Thou within humanity itself that manifests the inner reciprocity, the differentiation and union, that is the life of the Trinity: “that it is in the differentiation of man and woman, the relation of sex, that there is this repetition, is an indication of the creatureliness of man – for this is something which he has in common with the beasts. But this creaturely differentiation and relationship is show to be distinct and free, to... Read more

Sapientia and Scientia

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:02 am By Peter Leithart

Augustine taught that scientia, knowledge of historical events, was necessary for Christian theology, but that all theology aspired to love of God, which is more closely bound with “sapientia” or wisdom. By the time Aquinas raised the question of whether sacred doctrine is a form of wisdom, however, the terms had been redefined. Under the influence of Peter Abelard, Ellen Charry argues, Peter the Lombard attempted to deliver scientia from the Augustinian subordination to sapientia, and in so doing to... Read more

1 Kings 13 again

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

James K. Mead has a fine article on 1 Kings 13 from an issue of VT several years ago. He proposes a parallel structure for the whole chapter: Scene 1 (vv. 1-10) matches scene 3 (vv. 20-25); in both there is a calling out, a pronouncement from Yahweh, a sign, and a triple repetition of the phrase “by the way.” Scene 2 (vv. 11-18) matches scene 4 (vv. 25-32): In both the prophet hears something, saddles his donkey, goes and... Read more

Amos and 1 Kings 13

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:46 pm By Peter Leithart

In an article on 1 Kings 13, Werner Lemke noted a number of parallels with the prophecy of Amos, specifically parallels between the man of God from Judah and Amos himself. 1) Both are from Judah and prophesy at Bethel. 2) Both confront authorites at Bethel. 3) Both predict the destruction of Bethel’s altar or sanctuary. 4) Both are prophets under a “Jeroboam.” 5) Both are distinguished from “professional” prophets – the man of God by the title “man of... Read more