Left Behind

Last updated on: December 29, 2017 at 5:54 pm By Peter Leithart

In his forthcoming The Left Behind, Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow tries to penetrate past the headlines and stereotypes to discover the truth about, his subtitle has it, decline and rage in rural America. Wuthnow didn’t drop into flyover country for a long weekend of hanging with local pundits at a bar. His study is based on extensive in-depth interviews with Americans in dozens of rural communities. A product of rural America himself, he wants to understand what drives and threatens... Read more

Conservatives on Globalization

Last updated on: January 2, 2018 at 10:30 pm By Peter Leithart

James R. Rogers offers a useful taxonomy of contemporary conservative critiques of globalization. He defines globalization as “decreasing costs to capital and labor mobility. Mobility across, but also within, national borders.” Alternatively, it could be defined as “the process of incorporating new regions of the world into a unified market system.” Until recently, he observes, “the American right promoted, or at least tolerated, the post-World War II international economic system, and the global economic system it implied.” But that consensus is... Read more

Free Theocracy

Last updated on: January 2, 2018 at 9:14 am By Peter Leithart

In his Religious Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov, Jonathan Sutton lays out Solovyov’s (Solovyev; Soloviev) conception of “free theocracy.” For Solovyov, “the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth is presented as an ordering of all aspects of life (individual and communal life) according to Christian principles. Furthermore, this enterprise of conforming earthly life to its heavenly model should be animated by the spirit of Christian love (agape). This ideal, heavenly order is not imposed on man; rather, it is intended... Read more

Gentiles in Chronicles

Last updated on: January 2, 2018 at 9:13 am By Peter Leithart

In a contribution to The Chronicler as Author, Ehud Ben Zvi reviews five statements about Israel from foreigners in the book of Chronicles. The foreigners are Huram of Tyre, the Queen of Sheba, Sennacherib, Neco king of Egypt, and Cyrus the Persian. The first and last two are positive statements about the God of Israel; the central statement, from Sennacherib, is blasphemy. Ben Zvi concludes that “four out of five of the aforementioned foreign kings are construed for the rereadership (sic) as positive characters... Read more

Things Fall Apart

Last updated on: December 29, 2017 at 5:53 pm By Peter Leithart

If the past few years are any guide, we’re in for a wild ride in 2018. From Pyongyang’s nukes to Hollywood casting calls, from China’s rise to the EU’s breakup, from street battles in Charlottesville and massacres in Vegas to the president’s Twitter habits: Everything teeters on the edge of apocalypse. Today’s world seems to be a scramble of disconnected data points, but there’s coherence in the chaos. The most penetrating analyses focus on the West’s loss of confidence in... Read more

Austen’s Spirituality and Legacy

Last updated on: December 29, 2017 at 5:49 pm By Peter Leithart

It’s difficult to imagine two books on the same topic more different than the two under review here. Though both have “Jane Austen” in the title, they diverge in sources, methods, aims, conclusions, interests, and style. Paula Hollingsworth—a priest and a frequent speaker on English literature—offers straightforward biography and brief but close readings in The Spirituality of Jane Austen. Devoney Looser—a professor of English at Arizona State University—doesn’t pay much attention to the “real” Austen or the text of her novels... Read more

His Anger Does Not Turn

Last updated on: December 28, 2017 at 8:36 pm By Peter Leithart

Four times in Isaiah 9-10, the Lord repeats that same threat: “In spite of all this His anger does not turn away, and His hand is still stretched out.” And then again, “In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away, and His hand is still stretched out.” And then again, and then again (9:12, 17, 21; 10:4). He has tried everything to bring Israel back. He has brought afflictions, and then new afflictions, and still Israel and... Read more

Cock or King?

Last updated on: December 22, 2017 at 3:07 am By Peter Leithart

Proverbs 30 contains seven enumerated lists, which are punctuated with shorter proverbs: A.Agur: Stupider than any man, vv 2-4 B. The word of God, vv 5-6 1.Two requests, vv 7-9 (don’t slander a slave, v 10) 2. Four generations, vv 11-14 3. Two/three daughters of leech, vv 15-16 (eye that mocks father, v 17) 4. Three/four wonderful things, vv 18-19 (way of adulterous woman, v 20) 5. Three/four things that make earth shake, vv 21-23 6. Four small wise things,... Read more

God on the Cross

Last updated on: December 22, 2017 at 2:56 am By Peter Leithart

Who is the main character of the Passion story? Jesus, of course. But who is Jesus? Who was tried by Pontius Pilate, tortured, and crucified? That is the central question in all the debates about the incarnation in the early church. Those early debates got highly very technical. Debates raged about the meaning of philosophical terms like “nature” and “person” and “essence” and “substance.” Fine distinctions were drawn between person and essence. As the debates went on, the language got... Read more

Apocalyptic God

Last updated on: December 22, 2017 at 3:15 am By Peter Leithart

Search Google Images for “apocalypse,” and a wildly colorful page will pop up. There are several renditions of the four horses of John apocalypse charging across a fiery landscape. In another picture, a black helicopter buzzes past an Oriental fishing village rocked by multiple explosions – Vietnamese Apocalypse Now -, and elsewhere is a dystopian city whose streets are full of blood-stained zombies. Tucked at the corners are portraits of the robotic Marvel Comics mutant Apocalypse, arms crossed, his 500-year-old... Read more