Preserving Subjectivity?

Last updated on: November 3, 2017 at 3:09 am By Peter Leithart

In a TLS exchange with Timothy Williamson on the uses of philosophy, Roger Scruton argues that philosophy’s task is to preserve humanity’s humanity, the subjectivity that sets us apart from the rest of the world. Philosophy mans the boundaries between objective science and humanism, especially aesthetics. Scruton writes that the philosopher’s task is to “distinguish genuine science from mere scientism. Philosophy is, and ought especially to be, a handmaiden to the humanities. It should use its best endeavours to show... Read more

Janus-Faced Play

Last updated on: November 2, 2017 at 6:01 am By Peter Leithart

Rosenstock-Huessy begins his sociology with a lengthy discussion of the spaces of play. His premise is that “in play, it transpires that we anticipate the experiences of real life.” A little girl marries her boy doll to her girl doll. A boy enacts a battle with his toy soldiers (47). But that’s too simple. Play is more deeply connected to “serious” endeavor because it is both imitative of a past experience and anticipatory of a future: “Playing therefore wears a... Read more

Sociology of Suffering

Last updated on: November 6, 2017 at 11:53 pm By Peter Leithart

Rosenstock-Huessy scoffs at the notion of presuppositionless sociology (Sociology, vol. 1, 26). In a moving tribute to the life and work of Saint Simon, he argues that, on the contrary, “Everything known to sociology is known only because suffering is a fundamental fact. From the very first, her only knowledge is that human beings suffer, that accordingly something is not as it should be. Indeed she can scarcely know anything else. And so she breaks with the liberal wishes and... Read more

Race in Suburbicon American

Last updated on: November 3, 2017 at 2:52 am By Peter Leithart

Anthony Lane doesn’t much like George Clooney’s 1950s black comedy, Suburbicon. One of the story-lines focuses on the Mayerses, a black family, who move into the Suborbicon neighborhood. All hell breaks loose: “The mailman is astounded. The street is appalled. The whole community is in an uproar, and, before you know it, a rabble gathers outside the Mayers house, and the nighttime sky is lit by furious fires. Suburbicon might as well be populated exclusively by Klansmen; not a voice is... Read more

Promise and Act

Last updated on: November 2, 2017 at 11:07 pm By Peter Leithart

In the early years of Joash, the house of David hangs by a thread (2 Chronicles 23). Its entire future rests in a baby, Joash son of Ahaziah, whom Jehoiada the priest rescues from Athaliah’s slaughter to be raised among the priests. By every empirical measure, the Davidic dynasty is on the ropes. It has only one thing going for it: “Yahweh has spoken concerning the son of David” that David’s descendants will reign in Jerusalem (v. 3). The Davidic... Read more

Wittenberg Under the Ban

Last updated on: November 2, 2017 at 5:18 am By Peter Leithart

Charlotte Methuen’s TLS review essay of recent books on the Reformation is the best one-stop summary of recent scholarship I’ve seen during this season of Ref500 commemorations. In the recent biographies of Luther, you can find Luther the medieval mystic (Volker Leppin), Luther the angry, lonely rebel (Lyndal Roper), Luther as seen by Rome (Volker Reinhardt). Methuen discusses Carlos Eire’s massive study of the plural Reformations that stretched from 1450-1650. Natalie Krentz has made some of the most intriguing discoveries in recent... Read more

What Theory Misses

Last updated on: November 2, 2017 at 5:34 am By Peter Leithart

“All theory is eye-obsessed,” writes Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy in the recently published first volume of his Sociology (3). Theoria is a vision-rooted concept, and a theory attempts to grasp the “idea” of the matter by looking at things from all sides. Eyes, though, “whether empirical or inner – have one limitation, despite all their capabilities for insight and outlook. They may contemplate all sorts of things from every side except one: They cannot see him who sees” (4). In this hinterland behind... Read more

Elitist for the Revolution

Last updated on: November 2, 2017 at 5:07 am By Peter Leithart

Andrew Ferguson reviews Sally Quinn’s memoir, Finding Magic, explaining how Quinn transformed society reporting to become “one of the channels through which the revolution of the 1960s entered Washington and remade the city and American politics.” When Quinn got started, “society reporters were deferential matrons who acted less as reporters than protectors; they might know the town’s salacious secrets but would never think of printing them. Quinn liberated herself from such scruples. She revolutionized the society beat. The journalist became part activist,... Read more

Africa’s Dutch Disease

Last updated on: November 2, 2017 at 4:56 am By Peter Leithart

In a wide-ranging, informative overview of US interests in Africa, Matthew Taylor King summarizes the optimistic narrative of African productivity that emerged in the early 2000s: “In any given year, in a list of the world’s top ten economic performers, one would spot five or more African economies, such as Ethiopia, Botswana, Rwanda, or Côte d’Ivoire. Books published in the late 2000s boosted the idea of ‘Africa Rising,’ and soon Time and the Economist followed suit, dedicating covers to the... Read more

King Among Priests

Last updated on: October 31, 2017 at 4:49 pm By Peter Leithart

In that seventh year, Jehoiada the priest organizes a covenant renewal that will restore the Davidic kingdom. He places the boy king Joash on the throne (2 Chronicles 23). The covenant renewal is a double or even a triple covenant renewal. The first covenant involves Jehoiada the priest and five captains of hundreds. They enter a covenant to carry out a restoration of the Davidic monarchy (v. 1). Then, in what may be a second covenant, the high priest and... Read more

What is the Jewish "coming of age" ceremony?