Techie Fashion

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Leonid Bershidsky isn’t impressed with the Apple Watch: “The Apple Watch isn’t a tech miracle. It requires a phone to work, creating an Occam’s-razor moment for the consumer: Do I need another device if I still have to carry my phone around with me everywhere? Samsung has overcome this by offering a smartwatch that doesn’t need a phone. The Apple Watch’s functionality isn’t market-beating. It’s a basic fitness tracker that can count steps, measure the heart rate and prompt the wearer to... Read more

Techie Fashion

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Painter of Surfaces

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

William Deresiewicz wants to preserve the stature of John Updike. In his TNR review of Adam Begley’s Updike, Deresiewicz contends that the current eclipse of Updike won’t last. For the moment, David Foster Wallace’s crack that Updike is a “penis with a thesaurus” will be the elite opinion, but Deresiewicz thinks Updike is “the kind of writer who is going to be rediscovered, and who is going to keep being rediscovered.” No one has to defend Updike’s skill as a writer, and... Read more

Love, Bless, Multiply

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Deuteronomy 7:13 gives a succinct summary of Yahweh’s promise to Israel. When Israel goes into the land, He will “love you and bless you and multiply you.” This triad appears to be a sequence: Yahweh loves, and therefore blesses; and blessing, as in the creation account, brings increase – He blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. The blessing is filled out with a seven-item list that is organized in a 2 + 3 + 2 pattern: 1a) Fruit... Read more

Art In Your Face

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jed Perl doesn’t much like Jeff Koons and his “in-your-face” art. His review of the Whitney retrospective of Koons’s work is a small masterwork of critical scorn. Nothing, Perl writes, nothing is left to the imagination in Koons’s work. Whether he’s sculpting or painting himself having sex with his ex-wife, the porn star Cicciolina, or replicating baubles from the shelves of WalMart, it’s all so obvious. Perl writes, “Koons is a high-end purveyor of the literal and the obvious. That makes... Read more

Art In Your Face

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Apostolic Lawsuit

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Paul’s letters follow epistolary conventions of his time, but I suggest that it is just as illuminating, perhaps more, to classify his letters as members of a biblical “genre,” the “prophetic lawsuit” or the “covenant lawsuit.” Covenant lawsuits are embedded in Israel’s covenant-relation with Yahweh. The covenant sets up certain requirements for Israel, and positive and negative sanctions attach to these, blessings for faithfulness and curses for breaking covenant. When Israel goes astray, Yahweh sends his prophets as representatives of the divine... Read more

Consuming Jews and Gentiles

Last updated on: September 10, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Pastor Rich Lusk made the point in a recent sermon that Jesus’ miraculous feedings of 5000 and 4000 have everything to do with Jew-Gentile issues. Jesus feeds the 5000 in Jewish territory, and the numbers 5 and 12 are linked with Israel – the first the number of Israel’s military formation coming out of Egypt the second the number of tribes. Jesus feeds 4000 in Gentile territory, and the number 4 and the number 7 are global numbers, pointing to... Read more

Gospel In Galatia

Last updated on: September 9, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

James Dunn has observes that Paul’s letters are written for the defense and elaboration of the gospel. This is certainly the case with Galatians. Whatever other issues Paul raises about circumcision, purity rules, promises and Torah are all directed to clarity in the proclamation of good news. Paul identifies himself in Galatians 1:1, as elsewhere, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and then adds in 1:15-16 that he was set apart from the womb and confronted on the Damascus road... Read more

Gospel In Galatia

Last updated on: September 9, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart