On Books

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:05 am By Peter Leithart

David McKitterick ‘s Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 1450-1830 describes the move from manuscript to book as a gradual process rather than a sudden revolution. According to the reviewer in the TLS , McKitterick points out that books and manuscripts were not separated in library catalogues or apparently in people’s perceptions until the seventeenth century, when the printing press had been in use for two centuries. Further “There was no sudden break in the production of manuscript books... Read more

Goddesses in the Middle Ages

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

Robert Lerner reviews Barbara Newman ‘s God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages in the March 19 issue if the TLS . Newman’s book analyzes the female deities and allegorical figures of medieval literature and belief, including Nature, Lady Love, Holy Wisdom, and Mary. As Lerner explains, “She proceeds chronologically: Nature in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (eg, Alan of Lille and Jean de Meung respectively); Love in the thirteenth century (eg, Hadewijch); Wisdom in... Read more

Luther on Justification

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

Robert Jenson has a brief but very challenging comment on Luther’s views on justification in the Fall 2003 issue of the Westminster Theological Journal (which, incidentally, under the editorship of Peter Enns is promising to be a lively forum of debate). Responding to Carl Trueman ‘s critique of the new Finnish interpretation of Luther (associated especially with Tuomo Mannermaa), Jenson turns to a brief outline of “imputation” in Luther’s Galatians commentary. He makes the initial point that it is “a... Read more

Hayek

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

Francis Fukuyama reviews Bruce Caldwell ‘s new biography of Hayek in the Spring 2004 issue of The Wilson Quarterly . According to Caldwell, Hayek’s argument against a managed economy was basically an epistemological one: “There are limits to rationality, and what any individual knows tends to be local in nature. This is particularly true in a macroeconomy, which depends on the interactions of thousands, even millions of individual produces and consumers.” Hayek applied the same insight to other aspects of... Read more

McLuhan and Teilhard

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

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Tom Wolfe has a fascinating sketch of the life and work of Marshall McLuhan in the Spring 2004 issue of The Wilson Quarterly . McLuhan converted to Catholicism during his studies, and Wolfe suggests that McLuhan’s greatest inspiration was a hidden one, Teilhard de Chardin . Wolfe writes, “Regardless of what anybody thought of [Teilhard’s] theology, the man’s powers of prediction were astonishing. He died in 1955, when television had nly recently come into widespread use and the microchip had... Read more

Eucharistic Meditation, April 18

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:38 pm By Peter Leithart

When Jesus instituted the Supper, He told His disciples to continue to ?do this?Eas a memorial of Him. The ?this?Eis not only the eating and drinking, but the whole ritual, which includes the moment when the bread is broken. In making this part of the rite, Jesus was linking the Supper with the sacrificial meals of the OT. The Supper is not a repetition of the sacrifice of Jesus; Jesus?Esacrifice was once for all. But the actions of the Supper... Read more

Exhortation, April 18

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

Our confession that we believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, is foundational to everything in Christian faith, but it is a serious error to limit God?s creativity to the original act of creation. Such a view is implicitly Deist: Deists think that God created the world once upon a time long, long ago, and now his creative work is finished. God wound up the clock and now it?s running on its own according to its... Read more

Schaff on Protestantism

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

Obsession with sacraments and liturgy seems ?catholic?Eto many in our day, but it will not be news to anyone who has read and absorbed Schaff ?s Principle of Protestantism that these concerns were near the heart of the Reformation. Over a century ago, Schaff had grasped that the Reformation was not a break with the catholic tradition. On the contrary, ?The Reformation is the legitimate offspring, the greatest act of the Catholic Church.?E Schaff recognized that the ?formal principle?Eof sola... Read more

Freedman on the Hebrew Bible

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

David Noel Freedman ‘s book, The Unity of the Hebrew Bible contains a number of fascinating and compelling suggestions about the structure of the OT. 1) He suggests that the Hebrew Bible can be neatly divided into 4 sections of almost equal length: Torah, 5 books, 80,000 words Former prophets, 4 books, 70,000 words Latter prophets, 4 books, 72,000 words Writings, 11 books, 84,000 words He then suggests that the Former Prophets be included with the Torah, making a nine-book... Read more

Exodus in Romans 5-8

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm By Peter Leithart

NT Wright gives a characteristically stimulating overview of Rom 5-8 as a retelling of the exodus narrative. Here are some of the key elements of his interpretation: 1) He begins with the observation that Rom 8 describes the church’s future inheritance of the cosmos. The cosmos will be transformed at the revealing of the sons of God who will rule the new cosmos, the adoption or redemption that is the resurrection. 2) Earlier in Rom 8, Paul describes the gift... Read more