Hegel’s Phenomenology

Last updated on: November 1, 2004 at 9:00 pm By Peter Leithart

Merold Westphal is a remarkable philosopher. Extremely well-informed and careful, he is also remarkably lucid, even when he writes about philosophers that, to put it delicately, are far less so. In his dauntingly titled 1979 History and Truth in Hegel?s Phenomenology , a commentary on Hegel?s Phenomenology of the Spirit , he places Hegel in his post-Kantian setting, and also shows how Hegel set the terms for postmodernism. I was particularly intrigued by the following points: 1) Westphal describes Derrida... Read more

Hegel’s Phenomenology

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:43 pm By Peter Leithart

Sexual Laws of Leviticus 18

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

The sexual laws of Leviticus 18 have long been puzzling on a couple of levels. The logic of the arrangement of the laws is difficult to discern; the gaps in the laws seems inexplicable (no prohibition, for instance, of father-daughter incest); and the question of how obedience to these laws fulfills the purpose of distinguishing Israel from the nations is difficult to answer because, with some exceptions, the rules of consanguinity in Leviticus 18 do not diverge significantly from the... Read more

Righteousness in Romans 1

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

The phrase “righteousness of God” in Romans 1:17 has been the subject of considerable dispute in recent years, with many abandoning a standard Protestant interpretation of the passage (i.e., that the righteousness of God refers to the righteousness that God gives) in favor of a more redemptive-historical understanding (righteousness as God’s faithfulness to Israel, or as His commitment to restoring good order in His creation). One important, perhaps decisive, consideration has to do with Paul’s use of the word “gospel.”... Read more

Matthew 8 and Sodomy

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

Theodore Jennings and Tat-Siong Benny Liew have a curious article in the Fall 2004 issue of JBL . They offer an alternative interpretation of the story of the centurion of Matthew 8, an interpretation that hangs on taking “PAIS” not as “slave” or “son” but as “boy-lover.” They find plenty of evidence that the word can be used in this sense, and also plenty of evidence of pederastic relationships within the Roman military, not least between soldiers and their captive... Read more

Romanticism and Spain

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

In a review of Joseph von Eichendorff’s collected works ( TLS , October 1, 2004), Carol Tully points out the fascination of German Romantics for Spain: “For the poets and theoreticians of the Romantic age in German, Spain was somewhere very special indeed. The nation and its culture were eulogized in terms which owed little to historical accuracy and much to wishful thinking. “To the Romantic writers of the cold, Ossianic north, Spain was truly the aspirational ‘Other.’ Here, far... Read more

Two Kinds of Righteousness

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

Some intriguing quotations from Luther’s treatise on Two Kinds of Righteousness . 1) The first sort is “alien righteousness”: “The first is alien righteousness, that is the righteousness of another, instilled from without. This is the righteousness of Christ by which he justifies though faith, as it is written in I Cor. 1:30: ‘whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.’ In John 11:25-26, Christ himself states: ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes... Read more

Eucharist Lecture #3

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION Because of the imperfections of the reformation of the Eucharist in the sixteenth century, and because of the alien influences that have affected the practice of the Eucharist in the centuries since, there is much left to do in order to renew the Table. The Reformation must at this point especially be semper reformanda. TABLE AND CHURCH At the heart of the continuing Reformation of the table must be the restoration of the biblical, patristic and early medieval focus... Read more

Eucharist Lecture #2

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm By Peter Leithart

THE TRIPLE BODY OF CHRIST As Henri de Lubac pointed out, the history of Eucharistic theology and practice is largely a history of the changing relations among the threefold body of Christ. The threefold body is: the natural physical body of Jesus; the Eucharistic bread which is the body of Jesus; and the corporate body of Christ. Two other schemes were also used in medieval sacramental theology. First, the threefold body was overlaid with a scheme involving ?Ei> res ?Eand... Read more

Eucharist Lecture #1

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm By Peter Leithart

The notes that follow in this and the following two posts are for lectures to be delivered in Brockton, Massachusetts this weekend. HE CAME EATING AND DRINKING If we want to discuss the Lord?s Supper adequately, we cannot disconnect it from concerns of ecclesiology and eschatology. In the Old Testament, Israel?s meals shared these features. Food, the ancient Hebrews recognized, is for fellowship. We do not eat alone, nor do we eat merely for biological fuel. Sharing bread and meat... Read more