Art of the Feud

Last updated on: May 8, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his Bloodtaking and Peacemaking (180-1), his study of Icelandic society, William Ian Miller distinguishes between feuds and “other types of violence like war, duels, or simple revenge killings that involve no one beyond the killer and his victim.” While he recognizes the difficulties of definition, he lays out seven “features and impressionist observations”: “1. Feud is a relationship (hostile) between two groups. “2. Unlike ad hoc revenge killing that can be an individual matter, feuding involves groups that can be... Read more

Overcoming the Overcoming of Metaphysics

Last updated on: May 8, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Durkheim, on John Milbank’s reading (Theology and Social Theory, 63-4), attempted to socialize Kant. Comte had already argued that Kant anticipated relativism, since he knew that knowledge had to do with “one’s environmental setting” and that “this principle made transcendent metaphysics impossible.” Biology and sociology were to make this assault on metaphysics even stronger. By stressing the social situatedness of knowledge, Durkheim was able to pull out the last props. The move, Milbank argues, is “fraudulent,” and was already recognized... Read more

The Imperialism of Liberal Reason

Last updated on: May 8, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

“The ambition of the liberal political philosopher,” writes Paul Kahn (Putting Liberalism in its Place, 120), is to find that set of arguments that is so compelling that every individual, not corrupted by the illogic of interest, would necessarily affirm those reasons as his own.” Because it assumes the mantle of reason, it has “its own imperial ambitions” and can conceive of “no legitimate opposition because it has preempted the entire domain of public values by making an exhaustive claim... Read more

Family and sex

Last updated on: May 7, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In The Anti-social Family, recently republished by Verso, Michele Barrett and Mary McIntosh lament that, for all the hubbub about changing gender roles, not all that much has changed: “A gross asymmetry in heterosexual relations remains, despite these improvements. Men still seek and are willing to pay for the services of prostitutes, often asking for the fulfillment of the most bizarre fantasies and fetishes. They pour huge sums of money into the burgeoning trade of pornographic magazines, pictures, films and video-tapes... Read more

Beyond Atonement?

Last updated on: May 7, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Ted Grimsrud’s Instead of Atonement attempts to tells the “Bible’s salvation story” without appeal to the “logic of retribution.” Sacrifice, he says, was not about retribution but about the worshipers grateful response to God’s saving acts; it doesn’t change God’s attitude toward us, and neither does the death of Jesus. The logic of mercy, rather than the logic of retribution, governs the salvation story. Very late in the book, he acknowledges that “my focus has been limited in my treatment of... Read more

Shakespeare’s Religious Language

Last updated on: May 7, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

R. Chris Hassel has compiled a dictionary of every religion-related work he could find in Shakespeare’s plays and poems. The entries in Shakespeare’s Religious Language are usually divided into three parts – a definition, a compilation of Shakespeare’s uses of the term, and references to contemporary or near-contemporary writers (Donne and Lancelot Andrewes come up a good deal) who use the same term. Shakespeare’s biblical allusions have been covered before, so Hassel focuses on theological and ecclesial terminology, or on words... Read more

Evangelizing Metaphysics

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

Key terms of ancient philosophy are rare or entirely absent in the New Testament. Aristotle considered the study of causes (aitia) and principles (archai) to be the subject matter of first philosophy (Metaphysics A.1,981b28), and he defines metaphysics as the study “of the things which are qua being” (delon de oti e onta; Metaphysics 6.1025b), that is, the study of things specifically in their reality as things that are. Elsewhere, he says that metaphysics examines causes and principles of ousiai,... Read more

Jane Austen’s Names

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

Margaret Doody’s Jane Austen’s Names is a treasure chest. On the assumption that “an artist cannot do anything slovenly,” Doody explores the historical significance of the real place names that appear in Austen’s novels, teases out the puns in the characters’ names, suggests that Austen was sensitive to the ethnic resonances of place and personal names. Sometimes Doody’s book is a bit rich with information, but she writes so breezily that you feel that you can take it all in. She... Read more

Victorian Forgiveness

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

Early in his Forgiveness in Victorian Literature, Richard Gibson quotes Sarah Beckwith’s observation that “promising and forgiving [are] acts of making community” (27). Gibson draws on Hannah Arendt’s analysis to fill out the picture. Promises reduce the unpredictability of the future, while “forgiveness confronts the crisis of the past. In this case, the issue is the apparent ‘irreversibility’ of our actions – of being ourselves unable to undo what we have done. . . . Misdeeds thus have unwished for consequences;... Read more

Apotheosis of Consumerism

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

Though the presence of Christ has been central to Eucharistic theology, Thomas O’Loughlin (The Eucharist) argues that in Tridentine Catholicism”the dominant thinking about the event of physical engagement with the Eucharist was imagined in terms of a sacred commodity. The priest ‘confected’ the Eucharist, it was reserved for adoration and the wick, it was received when someone chose to receive Holy Community, and one could ‘get communion’ ‘outside of Mass’” (36). One effect has been the detachment of the Eucharist... Read more