Kings and the Land

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

Israelite kings were not to be like kings of the nations (Deuteronomy 17). Kings from the nations multiplied wealth and lived in luxury; they built military machines to conquer their neighbors; they kept harems full of princesses, wives and concubines that represented political alliances. Israel’s kings were to be different at each point: They were not to multiply gold and silver, nor horses and chariots, nor wives and concubines. No gold, no guns, no girls; they were to be restrained... Read more

Holy One of Israel

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

Yahweh is the “Holy One of Israel” (qedosh yisrael). It is a name used almost exclusively in Isaiah. It appears once in Kings (2 Kings 19:22), three times in the Psalms (71:22; 78:41; 89:18), a couple of times in Jeremiah. Isaiah uses the name twenty-five times (significant? 2 x 12 + 1; the number of chief priest + high priest?). Why would Isaiah use the phrase so frequently? It has something to do with the exilic and second-exodus motifs that... Read more

Dickensian Existentialism

Last updated on: January 27, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In one of the great essays on Great Expectations, J. Hillis Miller claims that Pip exemplifies a consistent view expressed in Dickens’s hero, which is equally a philosophical view of identity that tends toward existentialism and a closely related view of modern social order: “Dickens’s heroes and heroines have never experienced perfect security. Each becomes aware of himself as isolated from all that is outside of himself. The Dickensian hero is separated from nature. The world appears to him as... Read more

Conspiracy v. Faith

Last updated on: January 27, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Judah is threatened by an alliance of Syria and Israel, who are frightened by the expanding Assyrian empire. The Lord’s response, through Isaiah, is to offer the sign of Immanuel. That is an assurance in the face of imperial invasion. The Assyrians are going to flow into the land, the king of Assyria with all his glory, all his chariots and soldiers in shining armor, all his false winged glory-cloud. And it will fill the land, but this is not... Read more

Dionysian Nation

Last updated on: January 27, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Yahweh takes a vine from Egypt and plants it in the land (Isaiah 5; Psalm 80). He cares for it and cultivates it. He removes all obstacles that would prevent Israel from growing and flourishing in the land, clears the ground, digs a protective furrow around it. He takes the choicest vine, and builds a tower in the middle of it. He lovingly cares for His vineyard. He does all He can do to make the vineyard productive. The phrase... Read more

Trumpopulism

Last updated on: January 26, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Yuval Levin has listened carefully to the GOP hopefuls, entire speeches at a time. He discerns an overall theme – variations on populist distrust of the establishment. It is a peculiar brand of populism, not a protest against a too-powerful elite, but a protest against weakness and incompetence at the top. This, he thinks, explains Trump’s appeal and his limitations: “Donald Trump says that the establishment (and not just the Republican establishment) is weak and stupid, and that he would... Read more

Poetry and Faith

Last updated on: January 26, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In an interview with Image magazine, Rowan Williams explains the at of trust that is inherent in writing poetry: “Poetry is always a risky enterprise. You don’t know where you’re going when you start writing. One thing you do know is that you’re not going to exhaust what you’re talking about; the willingness to take the next step, to put the next word down, is itself an act of faith. You know you’re not going to encompass it, conquer or... Read more

Love Song

Last updated on: January 26, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In Isaiah 4, the Lord describes the glory over Israel as a “bridal chamber.” Yahweh’s glory is the place where Yahweh and His bride will meet. Then Isaiah begins a song, a song of the vineyard. But the nuptial imagery continues. The Song of the vineyard is a song about Yahweh as a vintner, but it is also a song about Yahweh the “beloved,” the “well-beloved” who plants and vineyard and cares for it and loves it. Yahweh who plants... Read more

Architecture of Alienation

Last updated on: January 25, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

A 1982 debate between architects Christopher Alexander and Peter Einsenman focused on contrasting cosmologies expressed by traditional versus modernist architecture. At one point, the exchanged focused specifically on the pitched roof. Alexander, advocating an architecture of comfort, harmony, and feeling, claimed that “the pitched roof contains a very, very primitive power of feeling. Not a low pitched, tract house roof, but a beautifully shaped, fully pitched roof. That kind of roof has a very primitive essence as a shape, which... Read more

Eucharistic Sacrifice

Last updated on: January 25, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Leonard Vander Zee (Christ, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper) shows some chutzpah in addressing the question of Eucharistic sacrifice, and in suggesting that there are senses in which the Eucharist is properly said to be sacrificial. He offers a few quotations to show the Reformation pedigree of this perspective. The first from Calvin: “The Lord’s Supper cannot be without a sacrifice of [praise], in which, while we proclaim his death [1 Cor 11:26] and give thanks, we do nothing but... Read more

What is the "Great Commission" Jesus gave his followers?