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Food and the Kingdom

Last updated on: March 21, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Carol Wilson’s For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Foodis a well-researched and illuminating piece of social-scientific scholarship on the New Testament. Picking up on recent work that places Matthew’s gospel in a Greco-Roman imperial context (e.g., Warren Carter), Wilson focuses narrowly on access to food. How did people get their food? What inhibited their access? How does the gospel of Matthew respond to those problems? Food shortages could occur, obviously, because of natural disasters, but Wilson shows that they also... Read more

Mind, Heart, Works

Last updated on: March 21, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus searches the entrails and hearts of His people (Revelation 2:23), but then judges everyone “according to your deeds” (erga). Why does He need the internal inspection when he’s going to judge by behavior in the last instance? That question highlights what might be called one dimension of biblical “philosophy of action.” Works are not simply external, bodily behaviors. Scripture treats motivation, goal, inclination, desire, emotion as being of a piece with erga. What Jesus judges is the whole package,... Read more

Mind, Heart, Works

Last updated on: March 21, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus searches the entrails and hearts of His people (Revelation 2:23), but then judges everyone “according to your deeds” (erga). Why does He need the internal inspection when he’s going to judge by behavior in the last instance? That question highlights what might be called one dimension of biblical “philosophy of action.” Works are not simply external, bodily behaviors. Scripture treats motivation, goal, inclination, desire, emotion as being of a piece with erga. What Jesus judges is the whole package,... Read more

Groaning Spirit

Last updated on: March 20, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The Spirit is the Spirit of creation, hovering over the waters. The Spirit is the Messianic Spirit, equipping the Servant of Yahweh with wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, filling His breath with the power to kill and make alive. But the Spirit who brings new creation out of the old is the Spirit of groaning (Romans 8). This is the Spirit who dwells in us, so that we groan with Him and with the creation, laboring over creation, moaning... Read more

Groaning Spirit

Last updated on: March 20, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The Spirit is the Spirit of creation, hovering over the waters. The Spirit is the Messianic Spirit, equipping the Servant of Yahweh with wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, filling His breath with the power to kill and make alive. But the Spirit who brings new creation out of the old is the Spirit of groaning (Romans 8). This is the Spirit who dwells in us, so that we groan with Him and with the creation, laboring over creation, moaning... Read more

Rewards of Generosity

Last updated on: March 20, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

At the Atlantic, Adam Grant describes the findings of his study, Give and Take, where he compiled “evidence that being a ‘giver’ who enjoys helping others can be inefficient in the short run but surprisingly productive in the long run.” He elaborated, “Givers tend to start out with lower sales revenue and lower medical school grades. In sales, givers often put their customers’ needs above their own sales targets. In medicine, before big exams, givers are so busy helping their friends... Read more

Rewards of Generosity

Last updated on: March 20, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

At the Atlantic, Adam Grant describes the findings of his study, Give and Take, where he compiled “evidence that being a ‘giver’ who enjoys helping others can be inefficient in the short run but surprisingly productive in the long run.” He elaborated, “Givers tend to start out with lower sales revenue and lower medical school grades. In sales, givers often put their customers’ needs above their own sales targets. In medicine, before big exams, givers are so busy helping their friends... Read more

Practicing Baptism

Last updated on: March 20, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Bard Eirik Hallesby Norheim summarizes what Practicing Baptismmeans. It is “about letting oneself to be made a receiver, a beggar over and over again (204). It is about renunciation, the call to give up our lives to gain them (205). Baptism is practiced well only if it is practiced as mission: “Practicing baptism always means being sent. . . . [It] has to be something other than a mere maintenance strategy. When the church practices baptism, the church is sent beyond... Read more

Comparison and the Native

Last updated on: March 20, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Peter Winch argues that any comparison of social realities across cultures is self-contradictory (The Idea of a Social Science, 108). We say X is a social fact, that it is what it is only because of the way social actors use and evaluate it. The “natives” deny that X is anything like what other people do. Whatever the superficial resemblances, the others are doing Y not X. If the social scientist says, “Oh, no, you’re wrong,” he has implicitly denied... Read more

Well-Dressed Names

Last updated on: March 20, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus’ message to Sardis uses the word “name” (onoma) four times, first in the sense of “reputation” (Revelation 3:1), then as a stand-in for person (v. 2), and finally twice in Jesus’ promise to those who keep up with their laundry (v. 5). We have the odd phenomenon of poorly- and well-dressed “names.” Jesus knows that some “names” have not soiled their clothing, and these are the “names” that will walk with Jesus dressed in white. They are “worthy” names... Read more

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