Anternet

Last updated on: May 28, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jamie Merrill reports in the Independent about recent research on ant behavior: “research shows that ants don’t just flourish because they work hard and will slavishly sacrifice themselves for the collective. Their success is also due to their group ability to process information ‘far more efficiently than Google’ in the daily search for food, according to scientists. ‘A major behavioural mathematics study, which could also have ramifications for how we understand human behaviour on the internet, used complex computer modelling to reveal... Read more

Abrahamic Oaks

Last updated on: May 28, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Isaiah 61:3 presents a translation challenge. Yahweh promises to grant Israel a reputation as “oaks of righteousness” (NASB; Heb. ‘ayil tzedeq), but the word translated as “oak” is almost always translated as “ram” (156x in the KJV as opposed to three passages where the word is translated as “tree” or “oak”). It’s not a surprising translation. Isaiah 61:3 goes on to describe Israel as the “planting of Yahweh” (matta’ YHWH; cf. Isaiah 60:21; Ezekiel 17:7; 31:4; 34:29), which doesn’t really... Read more

Abrahamic Oaks

Last updated on: May 28, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Residual Extrinicism

Last updated on: May 28, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In my view, the new account of nature and the supernatural offered by de Lubac and others does not achieve what it aims to achieve. De Lubac’s laudable goal is to overcome the “extrinicism” of neo-scholasticism, but he himself speaks of nature and the supernatural as being in a relation of “opposition” (Brief Catechesis, 49). This appears to be an effort to preserve the gratuity of the supernatural, but it has the effect of reverting to extrinicism. If nature stands... Read more

Economy of the Kingdom

Last updated on: May 28, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Pastor Rich Lusk points out that in the feeding of the five thousand, the disciples gather up more food than they started with. The spend resources, but their reserves increase rather than decrease. This is the economy of the kingdom: The Father rewards generous service, so that our expenditures of time, energy, and resources don’t deplete but add. We find more time, energy, and resources to expend on further generous service. This was a constant worry for medieval Franciscans and... Read more

On Earth as in Heaven

Last updated on: May 28, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

There is war in heaven (Revelation 12), and Michael casts the dragon from heaven to earth. Good thing for heaven; not so good for earth, because the dragon comes down enraged and begins to attack the mother and her children. But the dragon is eventually cast out of earth too, into the lake of fire (Revelation 20). And he is cast from earth in the same way he is cast from heaven – by the blood of the Lamb and... Read more

Who is like Michael?

Last updated on: May 28, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The war in heaven (Revelation 12:7-12) looks like an even contest. On the one side stand Michael and his angels and on the other the dragon and his angels (v. 7). But the text is organized to show that the two sides are not as symmetrical as they initially seem: A. Michael B. his angels C. wage war D. Dragon D’. Dragon C’. his angels B’. wage war A’. ??? The chiasm is incomplete. There is nothing on the devil’s... Read more

Losing One’s Head

Last updated on: May 27, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In a recent sermon on Mark 6, Pastor Rich Lusk pointed out that John the Baptist’s martyrdom fulfills his life as a Nazirite. According to Numbers 6, the Nazirite offers his “head” (often translated “head of hair”) when his vow is completed. John was a Nazirite from the womb, dedicated to carrying on God’s holy war. That dedication climaxes when he offers His head for the kingdom. Behind this is the typological pattern of Elijah and Elisha. John is Elijah,... Read more

Authorized Mission

Last updated on: May 27, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In each of the synoptics, Jesus sends out the twelve on a mission, and in each He is said to transform them from mere disciples (followers) to apostles (emissaries) by a grant of authority (exousia) over the spirits (Matthew 10: 1; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1). Not power (dynamis). But authority. The success of their mission depended on their possession of the right to act in Jesus’ name and the right to command demons. Mission depends on the gift of authority.... Read more

Lipstick on the Host

Last updated on: May 27, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The title story in Aidan Carl Mathews 1993 collection, Lipstick on the Host, is a tour de force of character development. The story is told by the protagonist, a saucy 41-year-old Irish schoolteacher named Meggie who has a brief, sad affair with a gynecologist, Antony (without an “h”). Mathews captures the liquid movements of her mind, her desperate hopes, her sensual experiences of sex and after-sex. She teaches Animal Farm and Dickens and Shakespeare to teenagers, and complains that the film... Read more