Don’t Panic

Last updated on: March 26, 2012 at 5:44 am By Peter Leithart

Stratfor analyst Scott Stewart wisely notes that panic in the face of terrorism plays into the hands of terrorists. Panic is what they want. And he explains that the media, internet, and even government can be “terror magnifiers”: “The traditional news media are not alone in the role of terror magnifier. The Internet has become an increasingly effective conduit for panic and alarm. From hysterical (and false) claims in 2005 that al Qaeda had pre-positioned nuclear weapons in the United... Read more

Eucharistic meditation

Last updated on: March 25, 2012 at 6:38 am By Peter Leithart

1 Corinthians 10:21-22: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he, are we? As Pastor Sumpter has emphasized, disloyalty in marriage doesn’t sneak up on married couples. Adultery doesn’t suddenly pounce on a marriage. Major acts of disloyalty grow from the seeds of countless minor failures and... Read more

Baptism exhortation

Last updated on: March 25, 2012 at 6:29 am By Peter Leithart

Matthew 10:37-39: He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it. Baptism looks like a quaint family ceremony. Parents, siblings, cousins,... Read more

Exhortation

Last updated on: March 25, 2012 at 5:45 am By Peter Leithart

“We always marry the wrong person.” And if by chance you married the right person, “just give it some time and he or she will change” (Hauerwas). We search the world for a partner to help us build a little kingdom where all our selfish dreams come to pass. We want someone who will leave just as we are. We want a spouse who adjusts without our having to make any adjustments. We want the benefits of cohabitation while remaining... Read more

Karamazov good

Last updated on: March 24, 2012 at 11:59 am By Peter Leithart

Evdokimov again, explaining how each of the Karamazov brothers presents a particular ideal of the good. For Mitya, the good is known immediately by sentiment that is prior to any reflection. The problem is that this instinctive response is unstable, and Dostoevsky makes this clear by showing Mitya lurching from Katarina to Grushenka and back. Ivan demands rational justification of life, and finds his good in ethical autonomy. Human beings have within themselves the power to achieve virtue and fullness... Read more

Orthodox Dostoevsky

Last updated on: March 24, 2012 at 11:50 am By Peter Leithart

Toward the end of his Gogol et Dostoievsky , Paul Evdokimov asks whether Dostoevsky’s views on nature, grace, creation, humanity were consistent with Orthodoxy. He answers with a ringing affirmative, and has some intriguing things to say along the way. Dostoevsky’s claim that the heavenly brilliance of the spirit of hamn is really revealed in flesh, and that this is perfectly natural to man leads Evdokimov off into a discussion of nature and grace in Orthodoxy. Christ, he points out,... Read more

Faith and Freedom

Last updated on: March 24, 2012 at 10:46 am By Peter Leithart

In his discussion of the Grand Inquisitor poem, Konstantin Mochulsky ( Dostoevsky ) examines how Dostoevsky depicts the slippage from humanitarianism to despotism. He sees it first in Ivan, the “author” of the poem: “The keenness of Ivan’s reasoning lies in that he renounces God out of love for mankind , comes forward against the Creator in the role of the advocate of all suffering creation.” Within this humanitarian impulse, Dostoevsky recognizes a “diabolical deceit,” since for an atheist the... Read more

Wings of the Spirit

Last updated on: March 23, 2012 at 3:48 pm By Peter Leithart

A well-duh moment: Yahweh rides on the wings of the wing (2 Samuel 22:11; Psalm 18:10). He makes clouds His chariot, and walks (or “goes”) on the wings of the wind as well (Psalm 104:3). That seems to be the same image: He is standing in His wind-cloud chariot as it flies along. But of course (here’s the well-duh) “wind” is ruach , Spirit. And the Spirit is a dove or an eagle. And the Spirit draws together winged cherubim... Read more

Pre-Modernist

Last updated on: March 23, 2012 at 1:05 pm By Peter Leithart

Like many artistic and intellectual movements, Modernism challenged its immediate predecessors by reaching back to earlier artistic forms. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona notes, for instance, the decisive influence that Grunewald’s Isenheim Alterpiece had on Picasso, and on the Guernica in particular. At one point, she focuses attention on the shrieking woman on the right side of Picasso’s painting: “The first image was that of the shrieking woman whose hands and arms stretched upwards, and whose mouth was open with the now silenced... Read more

“True” and “Pure” Church

Last updated on: March 23, 2012 at 11:17 am By Peter Leithart

Bavinck ( Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume ) has this helpful discussion of the meaning of “true” in Protestant ecclesiology: “A true church in an absolute sense is impossible on earth. For that matter, neither can a wholly false church exist; to qualify for that description, it would no longer be a church at all. The Protestants, though firmly rejecting the church hierarchy of Rome, continued to fully recognize the Christian elements in the church of Rome. However corrupted... Read more