Christianity’s Lost World

Last updated on: October 7, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Writing in Christianity Today, Timothy C. Morgan reports on an archeological discovery in Kazakhstan, a few dozen miles from the border with China: “A team of archaeologists uncovered seven Christian gravestones late this summer in the ancient Silk Road city of Ilyn Balik near the Kazakhstan-China border. The historic find is rare archaeological evidence that eastern Christianity was established along East-West trading routes hundreds of years ago, not brought in by the Russian Orthodox Church as many had believed.” The... Read more

Ranking Arnie

Last updated on: October 7, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

How do you rank the best golfers? Tallying up the wins doesn’t tell the whole story. The quality of the competition matters, as do the number of golfers in a tournament. Using a variety of complicated metrics, the Economist ranked the late Arnold Palmer among the greats of golf and concluded that he was even better than he looked: . . . the numbers tell a fairly consistent story about Mr Palmer’s place in golf history. While Mr Nicklaus and... Read more

Nature Without Us

Last updated on: October 7, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his The Territories of Science and Religion, Peter Harrison gives examples of the shift that took place in the understanding of the natural world. It was a shift from a “symbolic” understanding of the natural world to a utilitarian and mathematical one. He lists some titles that support his case: Whereas traditional natural histories, such as The Historie of Foure‐Footed Beastes (1607) of the clergyman Edward Topsell (ca. 1572–1625), still enumerated the symbolic meanings of the creatures, this emblematic... Read more

Not Religion v. Science

Last updated on: October 6, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Imagine, Peter Harrison suggests at the beginning of The Territories of Science and Religion, a historian who claimed to have discovered evidence of a war between Israel and Egypt that took place in 1600 AD. We’d be justifiably skeptical, and the evidence could be refuted with a swipe of the hand: The states of Israel and Egypt didn’t exist in 1600. Harrison argues that claims about an early modern war between religion and science should be greeted with the same... Read more

God’s Gift to God

Last updated on: October 6, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

1 Chronicles 17 is the Chronicler’s account of the Davidic covenant, Yahweh’s commitment to the Davidic dynasty. In his response to the Lord’s pledge, David summarizes the aims of the exodus (v. 21). Following the Hebrew word order, we can see a somewhat irregular chiasm: A. And what one nation (goy) in the earth is like Your people Israel B. which Elohim went to redeem (padah) for Yourself a people C. to set for Yourself a Name great and fearful... Read more

The Powerless Poor

Last updated on: October 5, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

It’s a truism of Old Testament studies that “poverty” in the Bible isn’t merely an economic condition. To be poor is not only to lack property and tangible wealth. It connotes deprivation in a wider sense. Psalm 10 illustrates the point. The wicked who does not believe in God (vv. 3-4) seem to be prosperous, unmovable, unaffected by adversity (vv. 5-6). The wicked man attacks the innocent with impunity (v. 8), and his “eyes lie in wait for the poor”... Read more

School Exodus

Last updated on: October 4, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Allison Benedikt doesn’t know me, but she thinks I’m a bad person. Not “murderer bad,” mind you. Just “ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid” bad. That kind of bad, which is “pretty bad.” I’m a bad person because I’ve never sent my kids to public school. My wife and I home-schooled all of them at least through elementary school, and then sent them to private Christian schools. I’m worse than most because I’m guilty of not-sending a whole bunch of kids. In fact, Benedikt may... Read more

Sodom and Jericho

Last updated on: October 4, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Before Joshua begins the battle at Jericho, he encounters “a man” with a sword who identifies himself as “the captain of the host of Yahweh” (Joshua 5:13-15). It’s a familiar scene, echoing the moment when Abraham encountered three men at his tent (Genesis 18:2). Abraham “lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men” (Heb. wayyishsha’ ‘eiyniyw wayyare’ wehinneh shelosha ‘anashiym). Joshua too “lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man” (Heb. wayyishsha’ ‘eynayw wayyare’ wehinneh-‘iysh). The... Read more

Laodicean Water

Last updated on: October 3, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Since at least the early 20th century, commentators have claimed that the messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2–3 are packed with local allusions that the recipients would have recognized (see, for instance, W.M. Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches). Craig Koester (Revelation) doesn’t think this works. Nearly every one of the supposed local references could be applied to several of the cities. For instance: “Ephesus was supposed to have been uniquely associated with a tree shrine, but... Read more

Advertising and Alienation

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Ray Oldenburg’s The Great Good Place is a brief for the “third place,” a place that is neither home nor workplace, a public place that isn’t political, the cafe, tavern, coffee shop or diner where everyone knows your name. “Third place” designates “a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work” (16). American suburbia, and hence American cities, have lost their third places. Suburbanites... Read more

Which prophet did King Manasseh supposedly put to death by sawing?