Interpretation and the Fall

October 15, 2003 By Peter Leithart

James K. A. Smith has a neat scheme for summarizing different view of interpretation in terms of the categories of creation and fall. For some thinkers, interpretation and the possibility of misinterpretation are results of the Fall; for others, interpretation and misinterpretation is inherent in created life, though there is a difference between those who see this as structurally good (Christian) or inherently violent (gnostic). Here’s a version of the chart he provides on p 23: Present Immediacy: Hermeneutics is... Read more

Another Benefit of Derrida: Because

October 14, 2003 By Peter Leithart

Another benefit of Derrida: Because he puts philosophical issues in mythological and metaphorical terms, he moves philosophy into the field of theology. As I’ve pointed out in a number of posts, Derrida (following Plato) speaks of the relationship between speaker and speech (or sometimes between speech and writing) as a father-son relation. When he does that, he’s already playing in the fields of Trinitarian theology (including theology of language), and he’s conceded a basic battle. This, as I recall, is... Read more

Writing and Democratization

October 14, 2003 By Peter Leithart

JP Vernant points out the connection between writing and democratization: “In the kingdoms of the New East, writing was a privilege and specialty of scribes. Writing enabled the royal administration to control the economic and social life of the State by keeping records of it. Its purpose was to constitute archives which were always kept more or less secret inside the palace.” In Greece, on the other hand, “instead of being the exclusive privilege of one caste, the secret belonging... Read more

Pharmakos

October 14, 2003 By Peter Leithart

Well, here’s an interesting coincidence (pointed to by Derrida, still in “Plato’s Pharmacy”): Derrida is discussing the ritual of the pharmakos , which he is connecting to Plato’s various uses of pharmak – words in discussions of knowledge, language, and other issues. The pharmakos rite was a scapegoat ritual, annually repeated in Athens into the time of Plato, in which victims were sacrificed and sometimes burned outside the city walls in order to purify the city. Derrida talks about this... Read more

Why is Derrida Fun?

October 13, 2003 By Peter Leithart

What is it that makes Derrida so stimulating and fun to read? At least for his treatment of standard philosophical works (I’m reading “Plato’s Pharmacy” in Disseminations ), I think it’s mainly that he shows that philosophy is not about what undergraduate courses in philosophy teach you it is about. Philosophy is not some kind of contemplative insight into the nature of things. Instead, it’s about rhetoric, myth, religion, politics. Read more

Derrida on Plato on Writing

October 13, 2003 By Peter Leithart

Derrida on Plato on writing says “In order for these contrary values (good/evil, true/false, essence/appearance, inside/outside, etc.) to be in opposition, each of the terms must be simply EXTERNAL to the other, which means that one of these oppositions (the opposition between inside and outside) must already be accredited as the matrix of all possible opposition. And one of the elements of the system (or of the series) must also stand as the very possibility of systematicity or seriality in... Read more

Baal is Antichrist

October 13, 2003 By Peter Leithart

Baal is AntiChrist. Like Nabu, who usurps the place of his father Marduk in Babylonian mythology; like Thoth in Egyptian mythology, who substitutes and replaces Ra; like Zeus, who rebels against his father Chronos and takes his place as chief of the pantheon ?Eso Baal attacks and replaces his father El. And that is to say that all these gods are false sons, sons who attack and kill the father, Oedipal sons, and not the Son who glorifies the Father... Read more

Archbishop Akinola

October 13, 2003 By Peter Leithart

There’s a very moving piece on the Nigerian Anglican, Archbishop Peter Jasper Akinola in the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly , written by Philip Jenkins. It’s wonderful to see how the Lord is raising up sturdy Christian leaders from the Southern Hemisphere to challenge the decadent churches of the North. One of the points Akinola makes is that the endorsement of homosexual practice will be an enormous boon to Islam in Nigeria. As Jenkins summarizes it, “If the Anglican... Read more

Eucharistic Meditation, October 12

October 12, 2003 By Peter Leithart

Communion meditation for October 12: We all know that Paul teaches that the Supper tests and manifests what is on the heart. Some the Corinthians were weak and sick, Paul said, and some had fallen asleep because they took the Supper wrongly. But this idea did not originate with Paul. All through the gospel of Luke, meals are occasions when the deep desires of the heart are made manifest. When Jesus eats and drinks with sinners, the Pharisees and scribes... Read more

Babel

October 12, 2003 By Peter Leithart

Babel has become a key image for postmodern Western thought. A number of years ago, Princeton’s Jeffrey Stout wrote Ethics After Babel , reacting to the Babelic move of some moral philosophers (such as MacIntyre and Hauerwas), who pointed to the difficulties of translation and even conversation across the boundaries of moral traditions. Stanley Fish does not, to my recollection, use the image of Babel, but he describes a similar tribalization of moral and political discourse in The Trouble With... Read more