Joking with Durkheim

Last updated on: April 19, 2013 at 6:14 pm By Peter Leithart

After he published The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies , Marcel Mauss wanted to continue his study of “total social phenomena” with a study of joking relationships. Marcel Founier ( Marcel Mauss: A Biography ) writes: “These were fascinating phenomena that had certain similarities to the potlatch since, as Mauss recalled, ‘rivalries of generosity’ were the occasion for insults but also for hospitality. Between relatives and allies there were exchanges of obligations but also of... Read more

Martyrdom

Last updated on: April 19, 2013 at 4:04 pm By Peter Leithart

In the print edition of First Things, Ephraim Radner has some sharp words for Candida Moss’s The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom : “According to Moss’s criteria, if an account of persecution or martyrdom is later than the purported events themselves (hardly easy to prove), if there is evidence of ‘editing,’ if more common literary forms are used in the telling, if there is a hint of theological sophisticated, and so on, the account... Read more

Wound of separation

Last updated on: April 18, 2013 at 2:28 pm By Peter Leithart

The presence of a lover can wound. So, of course, can separation. Commenting on the Bride’s search for her lover in the streets of the city, Paul Griffiths writes that “Love’s separation wounds are everywhere in scripture and tradition,” citing Israel’s exile, Peter’s tears, and Mary’s lamentation for her son ( Song of Songs (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible) , 125). And the trope is obviously not confined to the Bible: “She wanders, searching and suffering, and is beaten... Read more

Dirty Feet

Last updated on: April 18, 2013 at 2:24 pm By Peter Leithart

The beloved of the Song can’t respond to Dodi’s call because she doesn’t want to get her feet dirty. After a survey of the biblical data concerning feet, Paul Griffiths ( Song of Songs (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible) , 120 ) concludes: “When the beloved’s lover is read as the Lord, and especially as the Lord most intimately known in the flesh as Jesus, her refusal to dirty her feet in approaching him becomes a clear instance of... Read more

Structure of Song of Songs 5

Last updated on: April 18, 2013 at 1:41 pm By Peter Leithart

Song of Songs 5 is arranged in a modified chiasm: A. Bride Asleep, Dodi (“my beloved”) speaks B. His locks, v 2 C. He extends hand, arouses her belly, v 4; his hand D. She arises: hands drip with myrrh, v 5 B’. Locks, v 12 D’. His lips drip with liquid myrrh, v 13 C’. Abdomen/belly is ivory, v 14; his hand A’. Dodi (“my beloved”), v 15 The bride’s description of Dodi in verses 10-16 itself has a... Read more

Justification of the Ungodly Again

Last updated on: April 18, 2013 at 1:14 pm By Peter Leithart

Joe Rigney writes to point out that NT Wright’s interpretation of Romans 4:5 (namely, that “justification of the ungodly” is equivalent to “bringing nations into Abraham’s family”) runs up against a problem in Romans 5:6, where Paul tells us that “at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” Joe notes that “ungodly” there is contrasted to “righteous” and “good” (v. 7), both moral categories rather than categories having to do with status (Jew/Gentile). Besides, Paul says that “we” were... Read more

Augustine, Personalist

Last updated on: April 17, 2013 at 6:10 pm By Peter Leithart

One of Holmes’s targets in The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity is the “de Regnon thesis” that Greek and Latin Trinitarian theology took separate paths, the former being more pluralist and the latter more monist. Like other recent writers, Holmes doesn’t believe it, and he offers a neat inversion of the usual argument: “The language of the Son as the Father’s logos (knowledge) or wisdom, insisting on one cognition, one wisdom, and... Read more

Triune Creator

Last updated on: April 17, 2013 at 6:05 pm By Peter Leithart

Stephen Holmes’s The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity is a learned, sharp challenge to the “Trinitarian revival” of the 20th century. One of his central criticisms is that recent Trinitarian theology, in contrast to patristic theology, focuses almost exclusively on the New Testament. As an illustration of a contemporary appropriation of patristic modes of reading the Old Testament, he offers this summary of Francis Watson’s discussion of Genesis 1 ( Text, Church,... Read more

Justification of the Ungodly

Last updated on: April 17, 2013 at 3:25 pm By Peter Leithart

I’m still absorbing parts of NT Wright’s recent JSNT essay, “Paul and the Patriarch: The Role of Abraham in Romans 4.” A couple of his points are very compelling. First, he disputes what he calls a “customary” way of understanding Paul’s reference to “justification of the ungodly” in Romans 4:5. The argument generally goes like this: Abraham is a pagan and uncircumcised, hence ungodly; besides he’s a sinner; thus, he needs justification, and, since Abraham believes that God justifies the... Read more

Perichoretic fold

Last updated on: April 17, 2013 at 11:25 am By Peter Leithart

Since Deleuze’s Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque , the fold and its use in Baroque art, music, and philosophy have become a leading trope for postmodern thought and culture. Deleuze describes the significance of the Baroque in opposition to the clarity of Cartesian straight lines: “The Baroque refers not to an essence but rather to an operative function, to a trait. It endlessly produces folds . . . The Baroque trait twists and turns its folds, pushing them to infinity,... Read more