Philosophy of Death

Last updated on: July 7, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Peter Sloterdijk opens his Art of Philosophy (9-10) with a summary of the “epistemic suspended animation” that philosophy has traditionally demanded from its practitioners: “My aim is to show why the idea that the thinking person has to be a kind of dead person on holiday is inseparable from the ancient European culture of rationality, particularly classical, Platonic-inspired philosophy.” This, he claims, is written into the fabric of Socratic idealism, according to which “only the dead enjoy the privilege of looking... Read more

Communion in the Piety of the Reformed Church

Last updated on: July 7, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Hughes Oliphant Old is the dean of Reformed liturgical scholars, and he has crowned his career with the publication of a massive (900+ pages) study of Holy Communion in the Piety of the Reformed Churches. The title is significant: Old is interested in Eucharistic piety and practice as much as Eucharistic theology (and, contrary to some sectarians, “Eucharist” has long been a standard Reformed term). He draws not only on theological treatises, but also and even especially on liturgical texts, catechisms,... Read more

Setting Tables

Last updated on: July 7, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The first table setting in the Bible is the table of showbread in the tabernacle, set with twelve loaves of bread (Exodus 40:4, 22-23). That tabernacle table sets the stage for subsequent table settings. When Israel questions whether Yahweh can set a table in the wilderness (Psalm 78:19), they are asking about sustenance but also about sacrifice. And Yahweh answers, because it’s precisely in the wilderness sanctuary that Yahweh first sets a table. This is the table of wisdom (Psalm... Read more

Reclaiming the mountains

Last updated on: July 7, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Yahweh warns that He is going to measure out the wages for those who defy him (Isaiah 65:6-7): A. I will repay to their bosom B. their iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers C. because they have turned-to-smoke D. on mountains D’. And on high places C’. have scorned me. B.’ I will measure their former wages A’. into their bosom. Still, Yahweh promises that he will not destroy the whole vine of Israel. There is still new wine... Read more

Nature, Supernature, Science

Last updated on: July 7, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

John Walton argues in The Lost World of Genesis 1 (114) that the Bible attributes to God things that we explain in “natural” terms. He concludes that attempting to divide causation between “divine” and “natural” causation is “essentially unbiblical.” But then he proposes what amounts to a slight variation of that model. Instead of a “pie” where one slice represents divine and another slice represents natural causation, Walton proposes a “layer cake.” The lower layer is “the realm of scientific investigation,”... Read more

Gone Fishin’

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

Physiognamy’s revenge

Last updated on: June 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Peter Sloterdijk distinguishes in his Critique of Cynical Reason (139-40) between the objectifying and distancing aims of Enlightenment thought and the inescapable “physiognomic sense” of life among fleshly humans: “Whereas the process of civilization, whose core is constituted by the sciences, teaches us to distance ourselves from people and things so that we experience them as objects, physiognomic sense provides a key to all that which reveals our proximity to the environment. Its secret is intimacy, not distance; it dispenses not a... Read more

Kynics and Cynics

Last updated on: June 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In a 1987 review of Peter Sloterdijk’s Critique of Cynical Reason, Neil Wilson observes that for Sloterdijk “cynicism is enlightenment turned sour: a sourness which results from the self-denial that self-survival in a society dominated by instrumental rationality requires” (55). It is not a new attitude, but an ancient one, but Sloterdijk distinguishes between the original kynical protest against mainstream culture and philosophy and the cynical accommodation to the dominant culture: “Already during the classical period of Greek civilization a tension... Read more

Smart Dumb

Last updated on: June 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Poet Kenneth Goldsmith gives a taxonomy of smartness and dumbness. There are various permutations. He prefers dumb, but it has to be smart dumb: “There is dumb dumb and there is smart dumb. There is also smart smart. Dumb dumb is plain dumb and smart smart is plain smart. Smart dumb rejects both smart smart and dumb dumb, choosing instead to walk a tightrope between the two. Smart dumb is incisive and precise. In order to be smart dumb, you have... Read more

Coding Trance

Last updated on: June 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In an essay at Slate, David Auerbach tells a story about John Harris, a game-programmer: “While working on an 8-bit Atari port of Frogger in the early 1980s, Harris said, “’ glued my hands to the keyboard.’ One day he started programming midafternoon, losing himself in work. The next time he looked up from the screen, he was surprised that it was still light out, since he thought he’d been working well into the evening. It was actually the next morning.”... Read more