The Prince and his Princes

Last updated on: January 19, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The restoration of Judah involves a restoration of the Davidic kingship, the coronation and elevation of a Davidic king. Yahweh promises to send a new Davidic king who will rule with justice (Isaiah 32:1; cf. 9:1-7; 11:1-10). This addresses the complaints that Isaiah has brought against Judah from the beginning of his prophecy. Yahweh wields the rod of the Assyrians against Judah because the land is filled with violence, oppression, innocent blood, the abuse of the poor and needy. Judah has... Read more

Four Horsemen

Last updated on: January 19, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Ranko Stefanovic (Revelation of Jesus Christ, 229-30) notes that interpreting the first of the horsemen of the apocalypse – the white rider – is determinative for the understanding the whole sequence. The first rider, he claims, symbolizes the “conquest of the gospel of Christ and its spread throughout the world.” Those who receive it are blessed. But not everyone does. Therefore, a second rider goes out: “the rider on the second horse symbolizes the consequences of the rejection of the... Read more

Apocalyptic Trinity

Last updated on: January 19, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Thomas Altizer of “death of God” fame is back, advocating for what he calls the Apocalyptic Trinity. This is not your grandma’s “primordial Trinity” that is “the subject of all established doctrines of the Trinity.” That primordial Trinity bring “a total closure to apocalypse, even if there is an actual potency for an apocalyptic destiny” (5). Besides, that old primordial Trinity underwrites the status quo. It is “the deepest ground of all established authority,” while “the apocalyptic Trinity [is] the deepest... Read more

David’s Steward

Last updated on: January 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The second half of Isaiah 22 focuses on two individuals, the current royal steward of the house of David and his eventual replacement, Shebna and Eliakim. What happens to them exemplifies what Yahweh is doing to Judah and Jerusalem. The current royal steward, Shebna, has spent his tenure planning a monumental tomb so that he will be remembered after his death (v. 16). He represents the arrogant complacency of the city as a whole. Shebna is rebuked for wanting to carve... Read more

Angel at the Altar

Last updated on: January 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

After the seventh seal is opened, there is silence in heaven for a half hour as an angel stands at an altar to offer incense with the prayers of the saints. There are two altars in the temple – the altar of ascensions in the courtyard and the golden altar of incense in the holy place. At which one does the angel stand? The answer seems obvious, since the “golden altar” is explicitly mentioned in verse 3. But Ranko Stafanovic... Read more

Austen the Innovator

Last updated on: January 18, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In a superb essay in The Guardian, John Mullan (like Wayne Booth in his Rhetoric of Fiction) explains how Jane Austen’s Emma transformed the writing of fiction. She found a way to split the difference between the omniscient third-person narrator and the limited first-person narrator, creating what came to be called “free indirect discourse,” a subtle blend of distance and intimacy that creates new possibilities for comic narration. Mullan gives a number of splendid examples: “To measure the audacity of the book, take... Read more

Spaces of Apocalyptic

Last updated on: January 15, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his packed little book, Theology and the Spaces of Apocalyptic, Cyril O’Regan observes that “there seems to be a binary opposition in the modern world between apocalyptic and the discipline of theology” (15). Heterodox apocalyptic is everywhere, in Milton and Blake and Romanticism, among Hegelians, especially those on the left wing, in Russian thinkers like Berdyaev and Bulgakov. Theology seems to be mostly left out of the revival: “the history of theology seems largely to be the history of the... Read more

Empire with the Soul of a Church

Last updated on: January 15, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In an article on Revelation, J. Daryl Charles observes that the Roman Empire “had brought about the ‘solution’ – ‘salvation’ for the human race – and was thus worthy of popular adoration. Empire-adoration necessitated a personal symbol which the ancient city-state could not generate. In the Imperial cult resided the token of Imperial unity. The Empire was in effect a politico-ecclesiastical institution, a ‘church’ as well as a state, not unlike its Eastern antecedents” (90). He elaborates: “the notions of... Read more

Classifying God

Last updated on: January 15, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The “do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?” controversy surges on, reported most recently in the Economist. It’s worth revisiting. In an earlier post, I charged that the claim that Muslims and Christians worship the same God (what I will call the “identity theory”) implicitly denies a central tenet of classical theism. That charge needs some filling out, since the departure from classical theism is not the obvious one. Some may say, “There is a class of divine beings, of... Read more

How To Write An Introduction

Last updated on: January 14, 2016 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Here’s some seasoned advice to young scholars on how to write an introduction. 1. Write the book first. You don’t know what the book is about until you finish it, and you can’t introduce what you don’t know. This may seem backwards, but it is inevitable, because a thing is what it is at the end. If you need justification, you can call it an eschatological ontology. 2. Your book won’t be comprehensive, complete, or entirely convincing even to you.... Read more

Who was Jacob's favorite son?