Materialist Conservatism

Last updated on: January 11, 2018 at 10:16 am By Peter Leithart

Materialism is “good news,” according to Stephen Greenblatt, since it shows us the truth of “human insignificance” and dispels enchantment. We’re liberated from sacred boundaries to do what we like. Rusty Reno, who quotes this from Greenblatt (Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society, 148) considers this a bit of naively class-based cheeriness: “What Greenblatt fails to see is that this gospel is for the rich and powerful – professors at Harvard, for example. As materialism disenchants, the norms by... Read more

Varieties of Liberalism

Last updated on: January 11, 2018 at 10:11 am By Peter Leithart

Paul Gottfried (After Liberalism) points out that liberalism doesn’t mean one thing. It “has not been allowed to keep any fixed and specific meaning. It has signified dramatically different and even opposed things at different times and places in the course of this century, from a defense of free-market economics and of government based on distributed powers to a justification of exactly the opposite positions. Self-described liberals in the Western world during the last seventy-five years have been nationalists, internationalists,... Read more

Free or Fact?

Last updated on: January 11, 2018 at 10:09 am By Peter Leithart

In his Lectures on Godmanhood, Vladimir Solovyev isolated the inner contradiction of 19th-century conceptions of human nature. On the one hand, “contemporary man is aware that he is internally free, deems himself to be higher than any external principle independent of him, asserts himself as the center of everything.” This is the basis for modern politics: “man is a being with unconditional significance, with unconditional rights and demands.” At the same time, he is convinced by science that he is “only... Read more

Irony in Chronicles

Last updated on: January 11, 2018 at 10:05 am By Peter Leithart

Many commentators have noted the similarities between Josiah’s death (2 Chronicles 35) and that of Ahab (2 Chronicles 18). Christine Mitchell argues, however, that commentators often miss the irony of the Chronicler’s account, and some of the other precedents for Josiah’s death. One irony has to do with the location of Josiah’s death. In 2 Kings, Josiah appears to die on the battlefield and his corpse is returned to Jerusalem. In 2 Chronicles, Josiah is still alive when he returns... Read more

Deportation?

Last updated on: January 11, 2018 at 10:04 am By Peter Leithart

Robert Heimburger’s God and the Illegal Alien is a careful, theologically-informed treatment of American immigration law. He provides detailed overviews of the development of immigration law, including the origins of the concept of a legal “alien,” sketches a theology of politics with the help of “Barth’s biblical theology of the peoples,” examines the biblical evidence regarding borders and immigrants with help from Oliver O’Donovan, Luther, and others, and examines specific cases in discriminating detail. He concludes that American immigration law... Read more

Aliens in the Mystical Body

Last updated on: January 10, 2018 at 5:58 pm By Peter Leithart

In his monograph on Aliens in Medieval Law, Keechang Kim notes that the distinction of citizen and “alien” replaced the earlier binary of “free” and “unfree” during the later middle ages. He cites John Fortescue’s De laudibus legum Anglie (c. 1468-70), which argued that “”Hard and unjust (crudelis), we must say, is the law which increases servitude and diminishes freedom, for which human nature always craves; for servitude was introduced by man on account of his own sin and folly, whereas... Read more

The Jewish Century

Last updated on: January 9, 2018 at 8:24 pm By Peter Leithart

Yuri Slezkine opens his book, The Jewish Century (11-12), with the arresting claim that “The Modern Age is the Jewish Age, and the twentieth century, in particular, is the Jewish Century. ” He makes good on the claim with brief glimpses of what makes modernity modern. Modernization is itself “about everyone becoming urban, mobile, literate, articulate, intellectually intricate, physically fastidious, and occupationally flexible. It is about learning how to cultivate people and symbols, not fields or herds. It is about pursuing wealth... Read more

Ville Des Expiations

Last updated on: December 30, 2017 at 11:24 pm By Peter Leithart

Pierre-Simon Ballanche (1776-1847) is hardly a household name today, but he was a significant literary figure in 19th-century France. Albert Joseph George calls him a “precursor to romanticism,” and he was an eccentrically Christian advocate for social reforms of various kinds. In his Ville des expiations, unpublished in his lifetime, he laid out a vision for prison reform that rejected utilitarian defense of punishment. As George observes, Ballanche always had an affinity for victims: “He had never vaunted the executioner... Read more

Herod Was Right

Last updated on: January 9, 2018 at 12:36 am By Peter Leithart

We all know the story. Wise men come from the east, following a star to Jerusalem. They tell King Herod they’re looking for the “king of the Jews.” Like the rest of Jerusalem, Herod is troubled, not thrilled, by the news. To Herod, another king must be a rival for his throne. He knows how to handle rivals. Herod sends the magi to Bethlehem, David’s city and the birthplace of the Messiah. He tells them to report back, enlisting them... Read more

The Chronicler’s David

Last updated on: December 30, 2017 at 1:39 am By Peter Leithart

The Chronicler leaves out all the juicy stories of David’s career – some of his major battles, his youthful heroism, Saul’s persecution, adultery, murder, household disintegration. David isn’t perfect, but he’s cleaned up enough to join respectable company. Mark Thronveit asks whether the Chronicler is a “spin doctor.” He acknowledges that the Chronicler has his spin, but he doesn’t think his intent is to whitewash. Rather than depicting a sinless David, the Chronicler shows us a David who knows how... Read more