‘68 Forever

Last updated on: December 27, 2012 at 5:29 pm By Peter Leithart

In his L’ingratitude: Conversation sur notre temps (French Edition) , Alain Finkielkraut cites Roland Barthes’s inaugural lecture at the College of France: “Language, as performance of the language system, is neither reactionary nor progressive. It is simply fascist: for fascism is not the prohibition of saying things but the obligation to say them.” (Why doesn’t he stop talking? Because he thinks there’s a “Utopia of language” that will break through.) Finkielkraut responds: “Structure is oppressive, says the structuralist, who despite... Read more

Calvin, Communitarian

Last updated on: December 27, 2012 at 11:33 am By Peter Leithart

Protestants are often charged with unleashing the social solvents of individualism on the world. The Reformers didn’t see things that way. In fact, they claimed to be standing for community against the corrosive individualism of the medieval Mass. Hence Calvin writes ( Institutes 4.18.7). He begins with “The Supper itself is a gift of God” and halfway through the paragraph complains that the Supper is not distributed in the Catholic church to the people to bind them together. Then this:... Read more

Eucharistic society

Last updated on: December 27, 2012 at 11:17 am By Peter Leithart

In a 2007 article in the Scottish Journal of Theology , Piotr Malysz challenges William Cavanaugh’s reading of Luther’s eucharistic theology. According to Cavanaugh, Luther’s theology created a dualism between “exchange” and “gift,” and turned the latter into a supernatural “intrusion” into the transactionist patterns of normal social life. Malysz defends Luther in part by pointing out that the “works” he rejects are not human actions in general but the self-justifying works of a sinner incurvatus in se ipsum .... Read more

Eucharistic Sacrifice

Last updated on: December 27, 2012 at 10:40 am By Peter Leithart

Luther-style: “I also want to concede that they [ministers, priests] may perform these sacrifices of thanksgiving for others, just as I can also thank God apart from the mass, for Christ and all his saints, yes, for all creatures. Therefore, the priest may think thus in his heart: “Behold, dear God, I am using and receiving this sacrament to your praise and thanks because you have made Christ and all his saints so glorious.’ For who does not know that... Read more

Chalcedon’s Leftovers

Last updated on: December 27, 2012 at 10:36 am By Peter Leithart

In his contribution to The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther (Cambridge Companions to Religion) (p. 274) , Robert Jenson remarks on the unfinished business of the Council of Chalcedon: “It is an agreed foundation for all Christian theology: as ‘one and the same’ identifiable person, Christ is both ‘one of the Trinity’ and one of us. In the standard language of Christology after the Council of Chalcedon, the incarnate Christ is ‘one hypostasis,’ of ‘two nature,’ one ‘divine’ and the... Read more

Doubly Decentered

Last updated on: December 27, 2012 at 10:18 am By Peter Leithart

For Luther, the believer has a doubly de-centered existence. “He who trusts in Christ exists in Christ; he is one with Christ, having the same righteousness as He.” But the believer who lives by faith outside himself in Christ also lives by love outside himself in his neighbor: “a Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith... Read more

Through a Needle’s Eye

Last updated on: December 27, 2012 at 8:12 am By Peter Leithart

My review of Peter Brown’s latest book is up at the Christianity Today site this morning. Read more

Holy Things for Holy

Last updated on: December 26, 2012 at 10:46 am By Peter Leithart

In the Old Testament, certain interior spaces were holy because God dwelt in those spaces, consecrating them by His glory (Exodus 29). The objects that were placed in those spaces were consecrated, mostly by oil, to take their place in the presence of God. Things were holy when made fit to exist in holy spaces. Now, there are no longer holy spaces. God dwells in the Spirit of glory in each believer, and in the interstices of the community of... Read more

Global Religious Landscape

Last updated on: December 26, 2012 at 5:28 am By Peter Leithart

At the Washington Post site, Max Fisher reports on some of the results of a new Pew Forum report on the global religious landscape . Fisher highlights the study’s findings about the reach of Christianity. It is, shall we say, encouraging for Christians. First in sheer numbers: “Christians are by far the largest group, followed by Muslims. That difference of 8.3 percent might not sound like much, but keep in mind that 8.3 percent of the global population amounts to... Read more

Exhortation

Last updated on: December 23, 2012 at 8:52 am By Peter Leithart

Christmas gifts should be an occasion for joy, but it’s not necessarily so. Gifts also produce discontent, envy, anger, resentment, and strife. You didn’t get what you wanted; someone else’s gift is bigger and better. And so on and on. In this season of giving, we need to remember the basics of Christian giving and receiving: You have nothing that you have not received; God is the Giver of all gifts who distributes gifts as He wills; He is the... Read more