Is John Anti-Semitic?

Last updated on: September 26, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

John talks much of “the Jews” as the enemies of Christ, and this has led many to charge him with anti-Semitism. Paul Rainbow finds these charges groundless (Johannine Theology, 130-6). John is Jewish, and “takes obvious pride in his own people’s religious heritage.” Jewish Scriptures are integral to John’s presentation of Jesus, and “in John’s writings there is no criticism of any of the great Jewish institutions.” The high priest has a “prophetic charism” and “in the Apocalypse the temple... Read more

Johannine Theology

Last updated on: September 26, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Everyone knows that John’s writings are vastly important in the New Testament and in Christian theology, but Paul Rainbow claims in his recent Johannine Theology that “a comprehensive survey of the Johannine theology is wanting in current English-speaking New Testament scholarship” (32). In a footnote, he lists a half dozen surveys of Johannine theology from the late 19th century to the present, but some are dated and others leave out Revelation. Rainbow takes account of all John’s writings. After assessing the... Read more

Johannine Theology

Last updated on: September 26, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Embodiment and Religion

Last updated on: September 26, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Susan Babbitt’s Humanism and Embodiment isn’t a book of theology. Babbitt draws on Marxist and feminist sources as much as on Eastern religion and Christianity. But she does think that religion offers unique resources for philosophy. Secularists, she thinks, are wrong to reject religion, because religion can become an ally of humanism. “Philosophical liberalism,” not religion, should be recognized as the threat to reason (163). Babbitt isolates four contributions that religious thinkers can make to philosophy. First, “religious philosophers are much... Read more

Written Allegorically

Last updated on: September 26, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In a recent article on Galatians 4:21-31, Ardel Caneday argues in part that Galatians 4:22 should govern 4:24. That is, Paul’s claim “it is written” should be extended to his statement that “which is allegorical,” yield “the natural sense, these things are written allegorically” (55). Allegory isn’t an apostolic imposition on a resistant text. Allegory is written into the text. This has to be the case if Paul’s argument is going to have any legs. As Caneday points out, if... Read more

In A Rush

Last updated on: September 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

“In 1849, some ninety thousand young men swarmed to the gold fields (two-thirds of them were American); in 1850, nearly as many more elbowed their way into the scrum, and the throngs kept coming all through the early 1850s. . . . In the four years from 1849 through 1852, more than 1 percent of the American population moved to California. . . . rushing off to a barely known destination thousands of miles away.” Many were on foot –... Read more

Are Doers Cursed?

Last updated on: September 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Paul cites Deuteronomy 27:26 in Galatians 3. The passage in Deuteronomy says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law to do them.” Paul applies this to “those who are of the works of the law” (hosoi ex ergon nomou eisin, Galatians 3:10). Commentators are puzzled. Deuteronomy pronounces a curse on those who don’t do the law; Paul, in the reading of many, says that the curse comes on those... Read more

Redeeming “Us”

Last updated on: September 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In a 1989 article on Paul’s use of Deuteronomy 21 in Galatians 3, Ardel Caneday argues that Paul’s use of pronouns in Galatians is not indiscriminate: “In Gal 3:10-4:7, Paul employs the first person when life under the law is in view and the second person when the gentile Galatians’ own situation is discussed” (203-4). Thus, “the blessing extended to the Gentiles is one step removed from Christ’s bearing the curse of the law;87 his bearing the law’s curse redeemed .... Read more

Ancient Christian Worship

Last updated on: September 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Andrew McGowan’s Ancient Christian Worship is a very fine introduction to the subject. Though it is up-to-date academically, and, as McGowan says, includes the results of some of his own research, it is accessibly written, clearly organized, and highly informative. McGowan traces early Christian worship from its origins in the apostolic era through the early fifth century. He is aware of the Jewish context of early Christianity and frequently discusses Christian rites and practices in that context. He also situates early... Read more

God in the Dock

Last updated on: September 24, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Some reflections on the trial of Yahweh in the book of Isaiah over at the Trinity House site. Read more