Contraction of Theological Imagination

Last updated on: October 24, 2017 at 11:09 pm By Peter Leithart

Toward the end of Corpus Mysticum, Henri de Lubac says that one of the most serious results of the shifts in Eucharistic theology he examines is “the devaluation of symbols.” Augustine’s entire theology was about “signs” and “things.” In the late Middle Ages, “consideration of ‘signs’ would soon suffer an eclipse” (244). Late medieval Trinitarian theology provides an example: “the doctrine of image and of vestiges began to be demolished. The school of Gilbert de la Poree denied it all... Read more

Left and Right

Last updated on: October 24, 2017 at 12:21 am By Peter Leithart

“In the summer of 1789, absolute monarchy and aristocratic authority were overthrown forever in the most powerful kingdom,” writes James Billington in Fire in the Minds of Men (20). If something happens, it must be possible. Just so: The French Revolution was “the hard fact that gave birth to the modern belief that secular revolution is historically possible” (20-1). Christendom, it seemed, could be overthrown. Christ’s kingdom could be reversed. At first, the overthrow of Louis XVI led to chaos in... Read more

Lament to Joy

Last updated on: October 30, 2017 at 6:16 pm By Peter Leithart

Josiah's death is a reverse exodus because it's first an inverted Passover. Read more

American Revolution

Last updated on: October 23, 2017 at 8:38 am By Peter Leithart

Was the American Revolution a Revolution? Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (ERH) concludes it was a “half-revolution” rather than a total revolution on the scale of the Russian, French, Puritan, Reformation, and Papal revolutions. Evaluating the revolutionary character of the American Revolution rests partly on the question of what “revolution” meant to the participants. ERH notes that there were two notions of revolution in play during the 18th century. In the “English” sense, revolution meant a preservation or restoration of an existing order of... Read more

German Reforvolution

Last updated on: October 25, 2017 at 5:06 am By Peter Leithart

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy claims that the German Reformation qualifies for inclusion as one of the epochal revolutions of Western history (Out of Revolution). This is so partly because the German Reformation gave to Europe a new social role, the civil servant: “In the German revolution the drab, grey life of the average bureaucrat was suddenly transformed as if by a great volcanic eruption. Graft, bribery, the spoils-system, stain the character of the civil servant in every country which has not been... Read more

Preaching, An Art of Division

Last updated on: October 21, 2017 at 6:36 pm By Peter Leithart

The following is an excerpt from Peter Leithart’s forthcoming two-volume commentary on Revelation (T&T Clark). You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings,” a voice tells John (Rev. 10:11). Then someone gives him a “reed like a rod” and instructs him to measure (11:1). Apparently, the reed is the tool he needs to prophesy. Why does a prophet need a reed? How is prophesying like measuring? Measured things—the bronze altar, the table of showbread, the... Read more

Deep Comedy

Last updated on: October 19, 2017 at 3:26 am By Peter Leithart

The following is an excerpt from the introduction to my Deep Comedy (Canon, 2006). Viewed as a whole, the Christian account of history is eschatological not only in the sense that it comes to a definitive and everlasting end, but in the sense that the end is a glorified beginning, not merely a return to origins. The Christian Bible moves not from garden lost to garden restored, but from garden to garden-city. God gives with interest. To say the same... Read more

Time, Natural and Social

Last updated on: October 23, 2017 at 5:07 pm By Peter Leithart

“To date,” writes Norbert Elias in his Essay on Time, “enquiries into the sociology of time are almost non-existent” (38). This deficit, he suggests, is due to a dichotomy of the natural and human worlds, a dichotomy reflected in academic specializations (71). He blames the “conventional tendency to explore ‘nature’ and ‘society’ and, therefore, the physical and sociological problems of ‘time’ as if they were completely independent of each other” (38). Natural and human sciences have different languages, methods, goals, “as... Read more

Two Kingdoms, Two Christs?

Last updated on: October 19, 2017 at 3:08 am By Peter Leithart

David VanDrunen, has worked out an understanding of natural law and the “two kingdoms” Christologically. He writes, “The Son of God rules the temporal kingdom as an eternal member of the Divine Trinity but does not rule it in his capacity as the incarnate mediator/redeemer” (Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms, 182). More fully: “To distinguish between the Son as creator and the Son as redeemer entails that the title of ‘Christ’ belongs only to the latter. . . in his... Read more