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Rorty and Reference

Last updated on: April 5, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jamie Smith (Who’s Afraid of Relativism?) defends Richard Rorty against the charge that he leaves behind an antirealism that implies we cannot refer to the world, perhaps an antirealism that denies the existence of extra-linguistic things. In Smith’s summary, “realist critics confuse having a theory of reference and granting a kind of ontological weight to things. That is, they think that having a theory of reference is the necssary condition for affirming that there are extra-paradigm ‘things.’ So they assume... Read more

Ideal Languages

Last updated on: April 5, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Wittgenstein, Jamie Smith argues, “relativizes the claims of logic without simply rejecting them.” He rejects not logic but “logical foundationalism” that takes logic as an “ideal language” that functions as “the norm for all languages” (Who’s Afraid of Relativism?58). It’s possible to see logic as such an ideal language, but Wittgenstein points out that “the most that can be said is that we construct ideal languages. But here the world ‘ideal is liable to mislead, for it sounds as if... Read more

New Adam

Last updated on: April 5, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

A woman clothed in the sun, standing on the moon, crowned with stars, is about to give birth (Revelation 12). The child is a male (arsen, v. 5), the shepherd who will rule the nations (v. 5). He is a new Adam, a point neatly underscored by the sixfold repetition of the tek– root: The woman is about to give birth (tekein, v. 2); the dragon stands before the woman about to bear (tekein) so that when she bears (teke)... Read more

Breeders: A Subclass of Women?

Last updated on: April 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jennifer Lahl of the Center for Bioethics and Culturewill show her latest documentary film, Breeders: A Subclass of Women?, at Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, on the evening of Saturday, April 5. The event is co-sponsored by Trinity Houseand Beeson Divinity School. For more information, click here. Read more

Breeders: A Subclass of Women?

Last updated on: April 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jennifer Lahl of the Center for Bioethics and Culturewill show her latest documentary film, Breeders: A Subclass of Women?, at Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, on the evening of Saturday, April 5. The event is co-sponsored by Trinity Houseand Beeson Divinity School. For more information, click here. Read more

City of Language

Last updated on: April 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In Who’s Afraid of Relativism?, his recent brief for Christian pragmatism as a philosophy of contingency and creaturehood, James KA Smith summarizes a wonderful little analogy from Wittgenstein: “Language [is] a city. While referentialist theories of meaning might recognize that there could be other uses of language, they will ardently insist that assertions (indicative claims) are at the heart of language: they are the ‘downtown’ of language. All other uses, then, are ‘suburbs’ of language. . . . But in Wittgenstein’s... Read more

Between Mother and Dragon

Last updated on: April 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

John sees two signs in heaven (Revelation 12), a woman and a dragon. Sharply different as they are, John’s language brings out their similarities. 1) Both are called semeion, vv. 1, 3. 2) John uses the passive ophthe to introduce both, vv. 1, 3. 3) Both are signs in heaven (en to ourano, vv. 1, 3). 4) John calls attention to the heads of each (kephale, vv. 1, 3). 5) The woman wears a stephanos of twelve stars on her... Read more

How Plants Think

Last updated on: April 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The always-fascinating Oliver Sacks takes a break from his human patients to review several recent and old books on earthworms, jelly-fish, and plants in the NYRB. One is Daniel Chamovitz’s recent What A Plant Knows. Sacks writes, “We all distinguish between plants and animals. We understand that plants, in general, are immobile, rooted in the ground; they spread their green leaves to the heavens and feed on sunlight and soil. We understand that animals, in contrast, are mobile, moving from place to... Read more

Open Door

Last updated on: April 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus has the key of David to open and shut (Revelation 3:8). He puts an “open door” before the angel of Philadelphia. Which way is the angel to go: In or out? The passage is typically understood with reference to mission. The angel is pictured on the inside of some enclosed space, and Jesus opens a door so He can go out. No one can shut the door and keep him in. The imagery would be similar to that of... Read more

Spirits, Stars, Garments

Last updated on: April 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The letter to the angel of Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6) is smoothly cohesive in theme. Jesus begins with a rebuke to the angel at Sardis, charging that despite his reputation for life he is in fact dead. Death and sleep are merged in verse 2, where Jesus calls the dead to life with a “wake up.” They need to wake up to complete their works in the site of God. Their works are dead because they fell asleep – they died... Read more

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