Jesus the Prophet

Last updated on: November 11, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

David Turner offers a detailed study of Jesus’ “woes” to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23 (Israel’s Last Prophet). He sets the polemic in the context of a Deuteronomistic theological perspective as employed by the prophets of Israel. Together, these add up to a “motif of prophetic rejection” with a recognizable logic consisting of three themes: “The first (1) is the ‘Deuteronomistic’ formulation of Israel’s relationship to God. In this formulation Israel’s national prosperity depends on its obedience to... Read more

Voltaire’s Bastards

Last updated on: November 10, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

John Ralston Saul’s Voltaire’s Bastards is about Voltaire. He turned the tools of irony and ridicule he learned to use from Jonathan Swift during an English exile, “into unbeatable populist weapons.” Criticisms of Voltaire from professional philosophers don’t really touch him; he didn’t want to construct a philosophy but to change society, and so he concentrated on six freedoms: “of the person (no slavery), of speech and the press, of conscience, civil liberty, security of private property and the right to... Read more

Threshing

Last updated on: November 10, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jaime Waters has written a book-length study of Threshing Floors in Ancient Israel. She summarizes the archaeological data regarding threshing floors, and discusses ancient agriculture, but her focus is on the theological dimensions of threshing: “in the minds of biblical writers, threshing floors served purposes beyond their agricultural functionality.” The theological uses are not detached from the functional ones. “Since threshing and winnowing are life-sustaining activities that happen on threshing floors, threshing floors were fundamental locations for human nourishment and survival.... Read more

Double Citizens

Last updated on: November 10, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his closing at one of the second-tier GOP Presidential debate, Governor Bobby Jindal expressed a perspective that is common among conservative Christians: “The reality is the idea of America is slipping away. As Christians, we believe that the tomb is empty. As Americans, we believe that our best days are always ahead of us, and they can be again. We must win this election. We cannot allow Hillary Clinton to take us down this path towards socialism – further... Read more

Prayer for Rulers

Last updated on: November 9, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

How long, O Lord, Judge of the earth, How long shall the wicked exult? They pour forth words, they speak arrogantly; All who do wickedness vaunt themselves. They crush your people, Lord, And afflict Your heritage. They slay the widow and the sojourner, And murder the fatherless. They say, “The Lord does not see, Nor does the God of Jacob pay need.” But You are the Lord. You kill and make alive; You bring down to death and raise up.... Read more

Flesh, Grass, Vapor, Hope

Last updated on: November 9, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass.” Flesh is weak. Flesh is finite, limited, mortal. Flesh is grass, and you are flesh. Your strength is the strength of flesh; your arm is the arm of flesh. Pile up the... Read more

Metaphysics of the Mall

Last updated on: November 9, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Chanon Ross (Gifts Glittering and Poisoned) offers this insightful description of the way this works in a trip to the mall: “When a consumer enters the shopping mall, her senses are engaged by a panoply of stimuli designed to intoxicate. Images, music, scents, and products swirl together in a whirlwind of desire. The consumer does not have to want anything before entering the shopping mall because it is designed to cultivate desire for her, and it provides her with the... Read more

We Were Never Modern

Last updated on: November 6, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

What Do Pictures Want? seems an odd title for a book on picture theory. WJT Mitchell intends his title to highlight the “double consciousness” that we have toward images. “why is it that people have such strange attitudes toward images, objects, and media? Why do they behave as if pictures were alive, as if works of art had minds of their own, as if images had a power to influence human beings, demanding things from us, persuading, seducing, and leading... Read more

The Rites of Rock

Last updated on: November 6, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Charon Ross offers a brilliant analysis of rock concerts as ecstatic experiences (Gifts Glittering and Poisoned, 132-4). The concert is a carefully orchestrated symbolic constellation “designed to enable the spectator to have experiences of ecstasy so wonderful and powerful that they are difficult to capture with words. Euphoria washes in waves over the enormous crowds, and with raised hands the spectators wave, yell, and scream lyrics that most of them know by heart. This ecstasy is facilitated by a great... Read more

Ecstatic Forgiveness

Last updated on: November 6, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his fascinating Gifts Glittering and Poisoned, Charon Ross summarizes John Milbank’s claim that forgiveness is an ecstatic act. Forgiveness, Milbank says (Being Reconciled), seeks “ontological harmony.” Forgiveness is never merely “‘disinterested benevolence’ but involves the forgiver abandoning himself and severing himself from himself for the sake of the forgiven” (Ross, 127). Ross elaborates: “Milbank observes that such a severing of the self for the sake of the other in the name of forgiveness corresponds to a ‘relational ecstasis‘ or ecstasy,... Read more