Sermon Outline, April 4

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

Luke 23:26-56 INTRODUCTION When Christians think of Jesus?Ecrucifixion, we often focus attention on the intense physical suffering that Jesus endured. There is no doubt that He was in anguish. During crucifixion, the victim would have his body torn with nails and his limbs stretched and contorted, as he slowly suffocated. But the text of Scripture pays very little attention to the physical pain of the cross. Luke in particular draws our attention to Jesus?Ewords, the mockery of the Jewish leaders,... Read more

Balzac a Marxist?

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

Balzac has often been coopted by leftist critics of capitalism, since he depicts so vividly the corrosive influence that money has on social life, including family life. Several of my students, having read Cousin Bette , point out that Balzac sees money more as a means for the achievement of desires that are not themselves dependent upon money. Money gives opportunity for people to fulfill their lusts, rather than being responsible for inciting those lusts. Read more

Comic Strip Epics

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

A student, Jeremy Downey, has pointed to the parallels between ancient epic and modern comic book heroism. In both cases, you’re dealing with men of superhuman strength, who have specialized areas of expertise, and one really cool weapon or tool. This is exactly right, and helps explain the feel of the Homeric epics ?Ethe cartoonish character of many of the deaths in the Iliad , for instance. But I’m sure that the Greeks would have not seen it so. It... Read more

Ferguson on the Spirit

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

I’ve been using Sinclair Ferguson’s book on the Holy Spirit (IVP, 1996) for several years in my theology class, and each time I review it in preparation for class I’m reminded of what a wonderful book it is. Ferguson is well known as a popular writer on Reformed theology and spirituality, and is a known scholar of Puritanism. What’s remarkable about this book is the rich biblical theology. Ferguson makes use of Gaffin’s NT work and the best of Meredith... Read more

Calf of Purification

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:48 pm By Peter Leithart

On the eighth day of the rite of ?filling the hand,?EAaron began his service at the altar. His first offering was a ?calf?E(Heb. ?egel ), which served as a purification offering for himself and (apparently) his household (Leviticus 9:2, 8). This is striking for a couple of reasons. First, Leviticus 4:3 requires that priests offer a par , a ?bullock,?Efor their purification offering, and, second, nowhere else does the Bible mention an ?egel as a sacrificial animal. There is no... Read more

Priest and Lampstand

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:04 am By Peter Leithart

Leviticus 21:10-15 describes the particular regulations governing the priest who is ?highest among his brothers,?Eand justifies these regulations by saying that ?the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him?E(v. 12b). The word ?consecration?Etranslates nzr , elsewhere used of the ?holy crown?Ethat was placed upon the high priest (Leviticus 8:9). The nzr is elsewhere called a zyz , translated in the NASB as ?plate?Ebut actually meaning ?flower?Eor ?blossom?E(Exodus 28:36; Leviticus 8:9). Thus, Leviticus 21:12 literally says that... Read more

Anti-Gnostic Resources

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

In Theology after Wittgenstein , Fergus Kerr (1986) launched a Wittgensteinian attack on the modern, Cartesian gnosticism that he found operative in Karl Rahner, Hans Kung, and Don Cuppitt. According to Kerr?s account, Wittgenstein challenges the Cartesian occlusion of the body and community, the ego?s effort to transcend particular human viewpoints and feelings and to examine the world from a godlike distance. Behind this effort lies a gnostic spiritual quest for deliverance from bodiliness. The escape from the body is... Read more

New Time, New Space, New Creation

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:09 am By Peter Leithart

Fundamental to any cultural scheme is the organization of the two basic coordinates of human life, space and time. A social and cultural world is at least a particular imaginative and physical ordering of these coordinates. Israel?s life as a people was patterned spatially by the sanctuary that was placed at the center of the wilderness camp and later permanently fixed in the temple at Jerusalem. Time was also patterned in relation to the temple, to temple festivals in particular.... Read more

Longfellow

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

There is something of a Longfellow revival going on recently, with the publication of the Library of America edition of his collected poems a few years ago, the first time a complete collection has been published in some time. Longfellow was eclipsed during the heyday of modernism, but in the 19th century and in many areas into the 20th century, Longfellow was undoubtedly the most popular poet in American history. His poems have been anthologized and memorized, and many phrases... Read more

Paul’s Sufferings

Last updated on: March 31, 2004 at 3:43 pm By Peter Leithart

Thomas S. Schreiner has some intriguing comments about Paul’s descriptions of his suffering for the gospel in Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ . For example, he cites 2 Corinthians 2:14, where Paul gives thanks to God as the one who “always leads us to death in Christ and manifests through Him the fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place.” The imagery is drawn from the Roman practice of leading captured enemy soldiers in proceession before taking... Read more