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Crowded Universe

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

Anti-moderns often speak nostalgically of the “crowded universe” of yesterday, when the world wasn’t just matter in motion but full of fairies and sprites and whatnot. It’s a charming picture, but the reality of a crowded universe wasn’t necessarily a happy thing. Stephan Maul writes of ancient Mesopotamia: “If a dog constantly howled and yelped in someone’s house, this boded evil for the owner of the house and his family. The person affected, however, had more to fear than impending doom,... Read more

Falling Stars

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

Apocalyptic texts speak of stars falling from heaven. We moderns typically think of individual falling stars hurtling to earth, but the ancients thought of something else. In his Thyestes, Seneca’s Chorus describes the descent of the constellations, a disturbing possibility indeed: “Trembling, trembling are our hearts, sore smit with fear, lest all things fall shattered in fatal ruin and once more gods and men be o’erwhelmed by formless chaos; lest the lands, the encircling sea, and the stars that wander in... Read more

Demarcating Science

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

Stephen Meyer’s magisterial Darwin’s Doubt examines the Achilles heel of Darwinian theory, the “Cambrian explosion.” He makes a compelling case that the phenomena cannot be explained within a standard Darwinian account. In the final chapters, he turns to an alternative, an ID explanation of the Cambrian explosion, in the course of which he addresses standard objections to ID’s scientific credentials. It is not scientific because it’s not testable, falsifiable, cannot make predictions, does not provide a mechanism, and so on. Ruled... Read more

Body, Soul, Spirit

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

Gerd Theissen’s contribution to The Depth of the Human Person sharply challenges mainstream views of Paul’s anthropology. It’s not that Paul’s theory is holistic rather than dualistic. That assumption is based on a faulty understanding of ancient anthropology. A holistic anthropology doesn’t necessarily imply a positive view of the body, nor does dualism imply a negative assessment: “If there is an internal hierarchy of a lower and a higher stratum within each person, the lower stratum is not expected to live... Read more

Making Money

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

Ole Bjerg (Making Money) doesn’t believe the classic “commodity” accounts of the rise of money, found in both Adam Smith and Marx. Both posit an original barter economy that is made more efficient by the introduction of a commodity that is used as a medium of exchange. Bjerg has several problems with this. There’s the “aporetic” character of the theory: Suppose gold is the chosen standard of value; how is gold’s value measured? It cannot be by the value of... Read more

Making Money

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

Ole Bjerg (Making Money) doesn’t believe the classic “commodity” accounts of the rise of money, found in both Adam Smith and Marx. Both posit an original barter economy that is made more efficient by the introduction of a commodity that is used as a medium of exchange. Bjerg has several problems with this. There’s the “aporetic” character of the theory: Suppose gold is the chosen standard of value; how is gold’s value measured? It cannot be by the value of... Read more

Conversion to Civil Society

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

Lida V. Nedilsky’s Converts to Civil Society is a sociological study of civil society in contemporary Hong Kong. But the use of the religious term “convert” is not accidental. Nedilsky argues that Christian conversion in Hong Kong opens up possibilities for other forms of voluntary association, both religious and non-religious. “Through distinct religious channels, individuals developed the skilled necessary to extend beyond their private religious selves and take a place in the public square” (8). Even in secular modern societies, religion... Read more

Doing Righteousness

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

Rivka and Moshe Ulmer summarize rabbinic teaching about charitable giving in Righteous Giving to the Poor. The book includes an overview of rabbinic literature in general before it gets to its main topic. Rich in quotation, the section on tzedakah examines the theological underpinnings of charity, the this- and next-worldly rewards of giving, and some of the rules governing charitable giving and receiving. Like the tithe to the landless priests, the tzedakah was considered “a sort of sacred tax” (46). It... Read more

Sacrifice at Ugarit

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

In his study of Ritual and Cult at Ugarit, Dennis Pardee discusses the similarities and differences between Ugaritic and Israelite cult. One of the “most striking set of similarities,” he says, “is provided by those terms that are either etymologically related to corresponding Hebrew terms.” The two languages use similar terms for “peace offerings” and “ascension offerings.” Beside, there is a “along with the general identity of the sacrificial victims (bovids, ovid/caprids, birds).” Neither indicates that children were sacrificed; the Hebrew... Read more

First Brick

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

Mesopotamian temples were sometimes made of bricks, and, according to M. J. Geller (a contribution to Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East), great care was taken with the first brick, the “auspicious brick.” Geller writes, “When a temple was not built of stone (the usual practice) but of brick, the greatest care was devoted to the first brick. The right clay was sought out and tested, it had to be ‘free of gravel, stones, roots, bones, and had to be... Read more

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