American Jesus

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

In American Jesus , Stephen Prothero traces a three-stage process that produced a uniquely American Jesus. First, Jesus was detached, through the awakenings of the nineteenth century, from the creedal and confessional Calvinism of Puritan America; then, scholars disentangled Jesus from the biblical witness, basing their faith supposedly on Jesus Himself, not on scripture or tradition; finally, Jesus was detached from Christianity itself, so that He could become all things to all Americans. Prothero summarizes: “In From Jesus to Christ... Read more

Eugene Vinaver on Romance Literature

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

From Eugene Vinaver, on the development of Romance literature in the high middle ages: In the third quarter of the twelfth century, some ten or fifteen years after the disaster of the Second Crusade, a remarkable event occurred on the European literary scene . . . . A series of French verse romances produced at that time established a new literary genre which, together with the influence of early Provencal lyric poetry [i.e., courtly love], ?determined . . . the... Read more

Those Crazy Medievals

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:51 pm By Peter Leithart

In the late twelfth century, the English writer Nigel Wireker produced the Speculum Stultorum , the ?Mirror of Dunces.?EIn this story, an ass, Brunellus, dissatisfied with his short tail, leaves home to visit the famous physician Galen to get a prescription for a longer tail. Galen sends him to Salerno, where the remedy not only fails but makes his tail even shorter. Deciding that he at least can be a learned ass, Brunellus travels to Paris where he studies theology... Read more

Chiasm in Luke 21:25-26

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

There’s a neat little chiasm in Luke 21:25-26: A. Signs in sun, moon stars B. on earth dismay among nations C. in perplexity at roaring of the sea and waves B. men fainting with fear and expectations of things coming upon the oikoumene A. powers of heavens shaken. A couple of things are clear about this. First, we are completely in the realm of Gentile imagery. You’ve got the explicit mention of the “nations” and the “oikoumene” in the B/B’... Read more

Eucharistic Meditation, February 22

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

In this parable, Jesus tells the story of Israel using the image of the vineyard. As we saw, this was not an invention of Jesus, but goes back to Psalms and Prophets who used the vineyard as an image of Israel. In these verses Jesus says that the vineyard is going to be taken from the leaders of Israel and given to another people, and that is the new Israel of the church. We are heirs of the vineyard, because... Read more

Exhortation, February 22

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

The sermon text this morning will be eerily familiar to some of you. Jesus has cleared out the temple, dramatizing its future destruction, and now He has set up shop at the heart of Judaism, teaching in the temple courts. The leaders of Israel, the chief priests and scribes, want to take Him down, and they come to Him with one challenge after another in an attempt to discredit Him with the people and regain control of the temple. All... Read more

Stones in Luke 19-21

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Stones, as I’ve said, are all over the place in Luke 19-21. One more indication of this: When the scribes and chief priests debate about how to answer Jesus’ question about John’s baptism, they worry that the people might stone them if they deny John. They “do not know” where John’s baptism came from, just as they “do not know” the time of their visitation. But the stoning they fear from the people is what awaits them precisely because they... Read more

Leadership and Authority in Luke 20

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

The debates in Luke 20 are focused on the issue of leadership and authority. The basic question is, Who is going to set the direction for the future of Israel — Jesus and His followers, or the establishment. A number of things follow from this: 1) Jesus’ parable of the vineyard is directed against the leaders, not the people as a whole. In contrast to Isaiah 5, as Joel Green points out, the vineyard itself is not destroyed in Luke... Read more

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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

Odd how things come in clumps. Prior to last evening, I had never even heard of the popular Victorian novelist and historian Edward Bulwer-Lytton. I first came across his name in an intriguing TLS article by Oswyn Murray, who claimed that Bulwer-Lytton had a special place in the development of modern classical scholarship, though his role has been (deliberately?) obscured by later writers. Then the March 2004 issue of First Things has Richard Neuhaus commenting on the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest... Read more

Terry Eagleton and Permanent Things

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:56 pm By Peter Leithart

It is a strange feeling to be reminded by a radical like Terry Eagleton of the existence of what Russel Kirk called the permanent things. Writing in Sweet Violence , his recent study of tragedy, Eagleton says “Radicals are suspicious of the transhistorical because it suggests that there are things which cannot be changed, hence fostering a political fatalism. There are indeed good grounds for suspicion here. But the truth is that there are things which cannot be changed, as... Read more