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Entrepreneurial State

Last updated on: April 9, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Mariana Mazzucato argues in The Entrepreneurial Statethat government financing and research has been crucial to the technology booms of recent decades. Jeff Madrick summarizes part of her argument in his NYRB review: “private firms often invest after innovations have already come a long way under government’s much more daring basic research and patient investment of capital. The obvious case is the development of the technology for the Internet, but the process is much the same in the pharmaceutical industry. “Mazzucato observes that... Read more

Plato and Moses

Last updated on: April 9, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his NYRB reviewof Simon Schama’s The Story of the Jews, G. W. Bowersock claims that Schama doesn’t give enough attention to the role of the Septuagint in late antique efforts to reconcile Judaism and Hellenism. Bowerstock doesn’t seem impressed with the claim of Aristobulus of Paneas (and many church fathers) that Plato read Moses. But he does think that historians haven’t given enough attention to “Greek” exposure to Hebraic texts: “The translation of the Hebrew Bible took place in that atmosphere,... Read more

Liberalism Against Humanity

Last updated on: April 9, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his Blood and Belonging, Michael Ignatieff offers this remarkably frank assessment of liberalism: “If I had supposed, as the Cold War came to an end, that the new world might be ruled by philosophers and poets, it was because I believed, foolishly, that the precarious civility and order of the states in which I live must be what all people rationally desire. . . . I began the journey as a liberal, and I end as one, but I cannot... Read more

Robe, Ring, Sandals

Last updated on: April 8, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

When the father welcomes the prodigal back, he instructs his slaves to bring a robe, a ring, and sandals to adorn his son, and to slaughter a fatted calf for a celebrated (Luke 15:22-23). This in response to the son’s confession, “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (v. 21). As Jesus has just said, “everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted” (14:11). This is not merely a... Read more

Sevens and Threes

Last updated on: April 8, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus has a triple title in both the letter to Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13) and the one to Laodicea (3:14-22). To the Philadelphians, He is holy, true, the one-with-keys. To the Laodiceans, He is the Amen, the martyr, the beginning-of-creation. Those traids suggest the Trinity, perhaps in detail. The Father is holy, the Son is the True, the Spirit is the one who opens and shuts. The Father is the Amen, the Son is the witness, and the Spirit is the... Read more

Is God Needy?

Last updated on: April 8, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

God has no needs. He is independent of His creation, perfectly blissful before He created it. But that’s not the same thing as saying that neediness is in no way a feature of the life of God. God doesn’t need anything outside Himself, but God does need God. Unless we’re thinking Trinitarianly, that last statement is tautological and unilluminating. In a Trinitarian context, “God needs God” comes alive. It means that the Father needs the Son to be Father and... Read more

Diaspora in AD 70

Last updated on: April 8, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Diaspora Jews “stood aside virtually completely” from the Jewish war of 66-70, writes Mary Smallwood in her Jews Under Roman Rule(356). By that, she means that Diaspora Jews didn’t send men or material to help their brothers in Judea, She admits that “Possibly rather more help was offered than is admitted by Josephus, who is out to glorify the single-handed resistance of the province” (356), and her suspicion that Josephus is a biased witness is well-deserved. But saying that the... Read more

The Oikoumene and the Land

Last updated on: April 8, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Those who keep (tereo) Jesus’ words will be kept (tereo) from the hour that is coming (Revelation 3:10). It’s a global hour, coming on the whole oikoumene. And it will test the ones who dwell on the earth (ge). Is that simply saying the same thing twice: The hour of testing will come on the whole world, and it will test the ones who dwell on the whole world? Or is there a distinction of environments? I think the latter.... Read more

Pillar in the Temple

Last updated on: April 8, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus promises to make the overcomers in Philadelphia “pillars in the temple of My God” (Revelation 3:12). Yahweh was the original pillar. He led Israel to Sinai in a pillar of cloud, and then His cloudy pillar filled the tabernacle. Yahweh is the pillar in His own house, the load-bearing structure that keeps the house erect. But Jesus promises to make the overcomers Yahweh-like, pillars in the house, trees and ladders stretched between heaven and earth, structural features of God’s... Read more

Conundrums of Choice

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

Abortion rights have been defended as a matter of protecting a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body. Why not allow a woman to choose to use her body to sell sexual favors, or to perform sex acts before a camera? That is even more obviously a choice about her body than abortion is. Yet feminists object. To remain consistent, they have to argue that no woman sells her body or submits to the objectification of porn... Read more

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