Economic Liturgies

Last updated on: February 2, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

“We must continue to develop nonmythological narratives that synthesize and interpret our experience. These narratives must be based on the facts as we currently know them,” argues Scott Gustafson in At the Altar of Wall Street. He thinks Marx and Schumpeter offer some coordinates for a “demythologizing” of economics and an exposure of the religious bases of economics. His book is an effort to further that demythologizing. Here is Gustafson’s idea of a nonmythical account of the origins of money:... Read more

Poetry, Liturgy, Spontaneity

Last updated on: February 2, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

More grist for the discussion of Protestantism and writing, taken from my review of Lori Branch,Rituals of Spontaneity. See the whole review here. Focusing on English literary culture and religion, Branch examines the formation of an “ideology of spontaneity” from the Reformation attacks on ritual through Puritan defenses of free prayer to the Romantic poetry of William Wordsworth. She demonstrates that the anti-ritual attitude is a central theme in the formation of modern views of religion, subjectivity, morality, and literature.... Read more

Descending

Last updated on: February 2, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Revelation uses the verb “descend” (katabaino) ten times, often with the specification that something descends “from heaven.” Cities come down from the sky, and angels, and dragons, and fire. The ten uses of the verb are in a fairly neat chiastic pattern: A. New Jerusalem will descend, 3:12 B. An Angel descends to feed John a book, 10:1 C. Satan falls, 12:12 D. The land beast makes fire fall from heaven, 13:13 C’. Hailstones fall, 16:21 B’. Angels descends, 18:1;... Read more

Protestants, Writing, Sacraments

Last updated on: February 1, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

My two-part essay on why Protestants can’t write got a lot more attention last week than it did when first published in Credenda/Agenda. Clarifications are in order. Behind the bluster, bombast, and hyperbole of the essay lie an assumption, an assertion, and an argument. The assumption is that liturgy forms culture. What we do before God in worship shapes how we engage God’s world outside worship. Water – fresh or poisoned – flows from the sanctuary to the land and... Read more

Of White Horses and their Riders

Last updated on: February 1, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Twice in Revelation, John sees a rider on a white horse. The first comes in response to a call from the lion cherub and the Lamb’s opening of the first seal (Revelation 6:1-2). He is alone, has a bow and receives a crown as he goes out conquering and to conquer. The second rides from heaven after Babylon falls. He judges and wages war, wears a robe dipped in blood, wears multiple crowns and has a sword and a rod,... Read more

Trump of the Lie

Last updated on: February 1, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

What does Trump do if he loses the Iowa caucuses today? asks Michael Kruse over at Politico. Kruse says that he will do what he always does: “He will deny and distort and belittle his critics and change the subject. He will say that he won.” Paul Holmes, who writes on public relations and has written about Trump, predicts a response like this: “He won’t say anything that happened was his fault. It’ll either be a case of voters not... Read more

Den of Thieves

Last updated on: January 29, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus condemned the temple as a “den of thieves.” He was quoting Jeremiah, who said that the Jews of his time were using the temple as a “safe house” where they could store and enjoy their ill-gotten gains. The temple was not where their thieving took place, but their hideout. Jesus’ condemnation is similar, but the thieving of the temple authorities themselves was part of the picture. Markus Bockmuehl notes that Jesus was only one of many who condemned Herod’s... Read more

Apocalyptic Herods

Last updated on: January 29, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

C. E. Douglas’s 1915 study of Revelation, The Mystery of the Kingdom, is an eccentric work in a number of ways, but for just that reason highly stimulating, provocative of insight. He rejects, for instance, both the “standard” dating of the book in the reign of Domitian (based on Irenaeus) and the “early” dating in the reign of Nero, arguing that we should take Epiphanius as guide and date the book in the reign of Claudius (41-54). He claims that... Read more

Why Protestants Can’t Write, II

Last updated on: January 29, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

1 Comment

If the writer must be open to the manifestation of God in “what-is,” she must begin with the senses. Following Aquinas, Flannery O’Connor writes, “The beginning of human knowledge is through the senses, and the fiction writer begins where human perception begins. He appeals through the senses, and you cannot appeal to the senses with abstractions.” Yet, “Most people who think they want to write stories are not willing to start there. They want to write about problems, not people;... Read more

Why Protestants Can’t Write, I

Last updated on: January 28, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Blame it on Marburg. The 1529 Colloquy at Marburg attempted to reconcile Lutherans and Zwinglians on the doctrine of the real presence, and was nearly able to achieve its aim. To Luther’s surprise, the Zwinglian party agreed with fourteen of his fifteen propositions, and even conceded most of what was said in the fifteenth article. Conciliation was in the air, and the fifteenth article concluded with the peaceable statement that “Although we are not at this present time agreed, as... Read more

According to James, if you show favoritism, what have you become?