Wal-Mart at the Movies

Last updated on: May 20, 2013 at 1:36 pm By Peter Leithart

Is sex good for movie sales? Not really, and Edward Jay Epstein, The Hollywood Economist (51), says it’s due to Wal-Mart: “In 2007, the six studios took in $17.9 billion from DVD sales, according to the studios’ own internal numbers. Wal-Mart, including its Sam’s Club stores, accounted for nearly one-quarter of those sales, which means that Wal-Mart wrote more than $4 billion in checks to studios in 2007. Such enormous buying power comes dangerously close to constituting what the Justice... Read more

Machined music

Last updated on: May 20, 2013 at 1:30 pm By Peter Leithart

Early in his Meaning in Technology (23), Arnold Pacey points to the connections between music and the development of technology. Some of the leaders in the development of machine industry were organ makers, including James Watt. But the connection between music and technology began much earlier with “the development of machines such as chiming clocks and carillons, and later, by a steady development of musical boxes, barrel organs and toy automata which produced musical sounds.” As the technology of music... Read more

Narrative-Law

Last updated on: May 20, 2013 at 6:07 am By Peter Leithart

The first of Pastor Ralph Smith’s studies in Deuteronomy 14 is up at the Trinity House page. Read more

Joyful glory

Last updated on: May 20, 2013 at 5:56 am By Peter Leithart

Psalm 104:31 says that Yahweh’s glory endures forever, and then immediately adds, as a parallel, “Yahweh rejoices in His works.” The Psalm as a whole is about Yahweh’s care of His creation, which represents the “manifold” works of God (v. 24). The glory of Yahweh is manifest in the sea that clothes the earth (v. 6), the water flowing from mountains to give drink to the beasts (vv. 10-11), grass growing for livestock to graze (v. 14), sap-filled cedars (v.... Read more

Baptismal meditation

Last updated on: May 19, 2013 at 7:01 am By Peter Leithart

Psalm 51:11, 17: Take not Your Spirit from me . . . . A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. David commits adultery and murder and abuses his power as king. He knows that when Saul refused to repent, the grieved Spirit abandoned him. Saul’s heart remained intact, but the price of wholeness was the departure of the Spirit of God. David’s prayer, “Take not your Spirit from me” means “Don’t let me be a Saul.”... Read more

Regulated disposition

Last updated on: May 18, 2013 at 11:27 am By Peter Leithart

In a summary of the patristic notion of the regula fidei in the Trinity Journal (2007), Paul Hartog helpfully stresses that the regulation of the regula was not only linguistic, doctrinal, dogmatic, or methodological. It had also to do with the reader’s disposition: “Certainly hermeneutical methods were employed, and there were debates between the adherents of differing methods. But what was decisive was an attitude.2 The Christian interpreter does not approach Scripture with a tabula rasa . We believe in... Read more

Fitted pieces

Last updated on: May 18, 2013 at 10:32 am By Peter Leithart

Jenson again ( Canon and Creed ), on the mutual support of canon and creed: “We cannot claim that the regula fidei actively shaped the very New Testament that came about. On the contrary, the material relation between the creedal tradition and the new canon is at first glance problematic. The creedal tradition provides little or no narrative of Christ’s teaching and deeds; it thus suggests, if anything, that the church could get along without it – which is to... Read more

Who is Risen?

Last updated on: May 18, 2013 at 10:30 am By Peter Leithart

Resurrection is not necessarily good news. Jenson ( Canon and Creed ) observes that the announcement “Hitler is Risen” constitutes good news only to a perverse few. Resurrection is good news only if the Risen One is one we want to have back. Saying “Jesus is Risen” also doesn’t constitute good news unless we know which Jesus is risen. It is the Jesus who said and did this and that that is risen. Resurrection is pointless without Christology. This identification... Read more

Pattern in the carpet

Last updated on: May 18, 2013 at 10:05 am By Peter Leithart

According to Irenaeus ( Against Heresies , 1.8.1), reading the Bible is like discerning a face among the fragments of a mosaic. Heretics read the Bible using sources other than Scripture and so the portrait they assemble is of a dog or fox. The orthodox arrive at a different arrangement: The heretics’ “manner of acting is just as if one, when a beautiful image of a king has been constructed by some skilful artist out of precious jewels, should then... Read more

Sprinkled from the dead

Last updated on: May 17, 2013 at 1:51 pm By Peter Leithart

One of Paul’s arguments for the resurrection is baptism for the dead: “What will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?” (1 Corinthians 15:29). Paul is referring to Numbers 19, where those who are defiled by contact with dead bodies. They are sprinkled with a concoction of water and ashes to raise them from their ceremonial death. Paul sees an analogy between that rite... Read more