Master Builder

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Bruno Blumenfeld ( Political Paul: Democracy and Kingship in Paul’s Thought (Journal for the Study of the New Testament) ) argues that Aristotle is lurking behind Paul when the apostle describes himself as a “wise master builder” (1 Cointhians 3:10): “Aristotle calls architectonike a master art or, rather, a science, which subordinates all beneath as an architecton does his workers, and he makes politics such a science par excellence. For Aristotle, politics is a grand practical science, ‘the most authoritative... Read more

Realm of the Gift

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Since Mauss, gift v . market and state has been homologous with premodern v . modern. Nonsense, Godbout argues. Alongside the state and market systems, more fundamental than either, is the primary sociality of family, neighbors, personal relations – the realm of the gift. He writes, “before human beings are understood in terms of any economic, political, or administrative functions they fulfill, they must be understood as persons: not just a conglomerate collection of particular roles or functions but autonomous... Read more

Freedom from gift

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Early on in his The World of the Gift , Jacques Godbout offers this intriguing vignette: “A retired civil servant, an atheist and rationalist, totally secular, does volunteer work with a religious order that cares for the poor. ‘You know, I receive more than I give,’ he is quick to say, as though to justify his giving way to such behavior before the court of utilitarian reason. ‘Often I don’t say a thing, it’s the person I visit with who... Read more

Self-love

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

In his book on Dostoevsky, Rowan Williams neatly catches the complex intertwining of the love of self, other, and God: “To love the freedom of the other [that is, the otherness of the other] is also to love oneself appropriately – as an agent of God’s giving of liberty to the neighbor, as a God-like ‘author’ of their identity; that is, not as a dictator of their fate but as a guarantor of their open future.” Read more

Keeping words

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

John pronounces a blessing on those who “keep” the things written in the book (Revelation 1:3). That certainly includes “doing what the book requires,” but Revelation is not mainly a set of orders but an unveiling of Jesus. Keeping thhe words of the book includes but is not exhausted by the category of “obedience” to the word. Keeping is guarding. Words are treasures, God’s word the most precious treasure. Keeping the words of the book means not only obeying but... Read more

Gift of Apocalypse

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Revelation (1:1) opens by describing the conduit by which the apocalypse of Jesus gets to His slaves. There are two processes, fractally related. First, God the Father gives apocalypse to Jesus, who in turn gives it to the slaves: Father – Son – slaves. Apocalypse, unveiling, is the Father’s gift to the Son. The Father gives the Son the gift of self-disclosure. The Son receives the gift in order to show it; He possesses to dispossess. It is an unveiling... Read more

Children’s catechisms

Last updated on: December 28, 2010 at 4:53 pm By Peter Leithart

A few entries from the 1899 ABCs for Baby Patriots . C is for colonies Rightly we boast, That of all the great nations Great Britain has the most. (more…) Read more

Children’s catechisms

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

A few entries from the 1899 ABCs for Baby Patriots . C is for colonies Rightly we boast, That of all the great nations Great Britain has the most. (more…) Read more

Prophethood of believers

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

God doesn’t send dreams, Aristotle argued. How did he know? If God were sending dreams, He would send them to a better sort of folk: “it is absurd to hold that it is God who sends such dreams, and yet that He sends them not to the best and wisest, but to any chance persons” and “there is no proof of this [that dreams are sent by God]: for quite common men have prescience and vivid dreams, which shows that... Read more

Luke and Empire

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Luke is often opposed (as in Badiou) as a pro-Roman conservative over against the radical Paul. Rowe suggests an alternative, and far more convincing, reading of the politics of Acts: “On the one hand, Luke narrates the movement of the Christian mission into the gentile world as a collision with culture-constructing aspects of that world. From the perspective created by this angle of vision, Christianity and pagan culture are competing realities. Inasmuch as embracing the Christian call to repentance necessarily... Read more