Funny Philosophers

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

David Bentley Hart contests Thomas Oden’s claim that Kierkegaard is the most humorous of Western philosophers, offering Hamann as an alternative. In challenging Oden’s nomination, Hart has this important comment about Kierkegaard’s attack on Christendom, particularly K’s complaint about Christian “whoremongers”: Yes, in fact there are “Christian” whorehouses, and whoremongers, and whores, and they are nothing like their pagan predecessors, because the formation of conscience within even a defectively Christian culture is something altogether novel; the whorehouse is now full... Read more

Dulles on Jefferson

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

Now here’s news: A Catholic cardinal putting in a good word for Jefferson’s deism. Avery Cardinal Dulles ends an article in the January 2005 issue of First Things with this: “Jefferson would probably have insisted on the positive articles of deism as a required minimum. For him and the other Founding Fathers, the good of society requires a people who believe in one almighty God, in providence, in a divinely given moral code, in a future life, and in divinely... Read more

Eucharistic Meditation, January 9

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:39 pm By Peter Leithart

1 Kings 12:15: So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a twist from Yahweh, that He might establish His word. A ?twist from Yahweh.?EThat?s what the writer of Kings calls the division of the kingdom. Yes, Rehoboam acted stupidly, brazenly, with foolish bravado. But the division was not ultimately Rehoboam?s doing. It was God?s doing. Yahweh sovereignly rules even in the midst of human stupidity, ensuring that His promise to Jeroboam is coming to pass.... Read more

Exhortation, January 9

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:40 pm By Peter Leithart

The book of Kings is important because it sheds on our situation in the contemporary church, in which the church is divided into myriads and myriads of denominations and sects. Our sermon text, which describes the division of the kingdom of Israel, offers several insights into the causes and nature of Christian divisions. First, idolatry is the root cause of division within Israel and within the church. Because Solomon worshiped idols, Yahweh tore the kingdom from him. By worshiping idols,... Read more

Marilynne Robinson

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

I had never heard of Marilynne Robinson until I saw a review of her recently published second novel, Gilead , a few months ago in The Atlantic . That review inspired me to get a copy of her first novel, Housekeeping , which is one of the most bizarre, funny, affecting novels I have read in a long time. (I’m sure that part of its affect arises from her evocation of the stark landscape of the NW. The book is... Read more

“Ecumenical History”

Last updated on: January 5, 2005 at 3:38 pm By Peter Leithart

In a 1985 Presidential address to the American Historical Society, William H. McNeill has advocated a form of historical writing that he calls ?mythistory,?Ewhich, in McNeill?s view, should take the form of ?ecumenical history.?EScientific models of history, McNeill argues, are no longer persuasive. Indeed, not even science could live up to the standards of scientific proof and method: ?Facts that could be established beyond all reasonable doubt remained trivial in the sense that they did not, in and of themselves,... Read more

“Ecumenical History”

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

Liturgy and Mere Symbolism

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:46 pm By Peter Leithart

Since we adopted a new liturgy in Advent, a number of church members have, quite reasonably, raised the question about our identity. What kind of church did we just become? The very fact that changes in our liturgical practices can have this effect is intriguing. Many in the modern world, including many Christians, believe that symbolic and external changes are just window dressing. Externals and “mere symbols” don?t have any profound or important relation to how we think or how... Read more

Eucharistic Meditation, January 2

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:39 pm By Peter Leithart

Luke 22:19: And Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ?This is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.?E In this morning?s sermon, we considered how the liturgical changes that we have made are rooted in Scripture. Scripture must always be the standard of liturgical form and content. We are to worship God in the way that He instructs, and that instruction is found in the Bible.... Read more

Exhortation, January 2

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:40 pm By Peter Leithart

God is a communicative being. He doesn?t just use words; He is the Word. He made us in His image and likeness, as communicative beings. Even if we keep our mouths firmly shut, we cannot avoid saying something; we cannot not communicate. Suppose you want to spend an airplane flight reading instead of talking to the person sitting next to you. You want to be non-communicative. What do you do? You avoid making eye contact, working to rivet your gaze... Read more