Nagasaki Syndrome

Last updated on: March 23, 2013 at 10:13 am By Peter Leithart

In his Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age , Zygmunt Bauman refers to the work of Gunther Anders on the “Nagasaki syndrome,” which Anders warned carried “the fully and truly apocalyptic potential of ‘globicide.’” The Nagasaki syndrom “means that ‘what has been done once can be repeated over again, with ever weaker reservations’; with each successive case, more and more ‘matter-of-factly, casually, with little deliberation or motive.’ ‘The repetition of outrage is not just possible, but probably –... Read more

Punishment

Last updated on: March 22, 2013 at 2:07 pm By Peter Leithart

Some punishments, Thomas says ( ST , I-II, 87), are punishments strictly speaking, some are satisfactory, some are medicinal. Punishment strictly speaking is the repression of order that retaliates against an offense committed against the order (art. 1). A violation of man’s own order of reason is punished by remorse of conscience, a punishment inflicted by the man himself; an offense against divine order is punished by God. The difference between punishment simpliciter and punishment according to satisfaction is the... Read more

A typology of Satanic attack

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 3:48 pm By Peter Leithart

James Jordan has pointed out that the book of Revelation gives us seven names for Satan: Wormwood (8:10-11), the poisoner of wells; Abaddon and Apollyon (9:11), both of which mean “destroyer” but which speak of destruction of Hebrew and Greek worlds respectively; Dragon (12:1), devourer of children; Serpent (12:9, 15), the seducer of the bride (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:3); Satan (12:9), the deceitful accuser of the brothers; Devil (12:9), the deceitful slanderer. These names give us a rich and helpful... Read more

The Body Assumed

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 1:15 pm By Peter Leithart

The Servant comes, and the arm of the Lord is revealed (Isaiah 53:1). The Servant’s face and form are marred, stricken, pierced, crushed, chastened, scourged. It looks like the body that’s already there, the body of Israel: “Where will you be stricken again, as you continue in rebellion? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, only bruises, welts, and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged,... Read more

No form, no face

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 10:22 am By Peter Leithart

According to the NASB, Isaiah 53 says that the Servant has “no stately form ( to’ad ) or majesty ( hadar ) that we should look upon Him, nor appearance ( mar’eh ) that we should desire ( chamad ) Him” (v. 2). Two of those three terms appeared at the end of Isaiah 52: “his appearance ( mar’eh ) was marred more than any man, and his form ( to’ad ) more than the sons of man” (v 14).... Read more

Desolated

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 5:48 am By Peter Leithart

Yahweh’s Servant prospers (or “deals prudently”), and so is raised, lifted, exalted greatly (Isaiah 52:13). But that exaltation is paradoxical, surprising, since the Servant that is lifted up is mangled and marred more than any of the sons of Adam (v. 14). The word translated as “astonished” ( shamem ) in Isaiah 52:14 most commonly means “desolated.” It’s used seven times toward the end of Leviticus 26 mostly to describe the desolation of the land that will occur if Israel... Read more

Judgment according to works

Last updated on: March 21, 2013 at 4:59 am By Peter Leithart

The New Testament says several times that there is a day of accounting coming when all will be judged according to their deeds (Matthew 16:27; Romans 2:6; 2 Corinthians 5:10). In Romans 2 especially, this is an individual accounting: God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Paul quoting Psalm 62:12). In the Old Testament, though, this formula is frequently used not of individuals but of nations. God puts on His armor to repay His adversaries all the... Read more

Egoism and evil

Last updated on: March 20, 2013 at 12:49 pm By Peter Leithart

Self-obsessed egoism is not, Zizek argues ( Violence: Six Sideways Reflections ), the essence of evil, and the “true opposite of egotist self-love is not altruism, a concern for the common good, but envy, ressentiment , which makes me act against my own interest.” The true evil is (citing Freud) the death-drive, our “self-sabotage” (87). He goes on to unravel some of the complications of envy. According to Lacan, human desire always includes an element of envy since it is... Read more

No Higher Cause

Last updated on: March 20, 2013 at 11:35 am By Peter Leithart

We are often told that we live in a “post-political” era or an era of “bio-politics.” Slavoj Zizek ( Violence: Six Sideways Reflections , 40-2) defines the post-political as “a politics which claims to leave behind old ideological struggles and instead focus on expert management and administration” and “bio-politics” as a politics that takes “regulation of the security and welfare of human lives as its primary goal.” Both exclude passion from politics. This has some ironic consequences, Zizek says. On... Read more

Cubist Realism

Last updated on: March 20, 2013 at 8:44 am By Peter Leithart

From the Renaissance to the early twentieth century, “almost all painting had obeyed a convention: that of one-point perspective,” says Robert Hughes ( The Shock of the New , 16-7). Renaissance perspective has come to seem natural, just the way we actually see, but Hughes points out that it is actually “a form of abstraction,” a “generalization,” and “an ideal view, imagined as being seen by a one-eyed, motionless person who is clearly detached from what he sees.” It is... Read more