The Jewish Difference

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

Against Badiou and Zizek, who want to use Paul to defend a generic “universalism” that can become homogenization, John Caputo ( St. Paul among the Philosophers (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion) ) argues that the universalism of Paul is more paradoxical, more Kierkegaardian (because Kierkegaard was Pauline): It is a “universalism of conversion to something quite concrete (grafting), not the formalism of a philosophical universal (subtraction), like the principle of causality, or a mathematical universal, like the Pythagorean... Read more

Rivers of men

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

In the table of nations in Genesis 10, we’re told that from the descendants of Japheth, the “coastlands of the nations were divided from their lands” (v. 5). The chapter ends on a similar note: “These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood” (v. 32). The verb “divide” has been used only once before in Genesis, describing division... Read more

Go, Go

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

Walsh notes the unusual repetition of the imperative lek (“go”) in Genesis 12:1: ” lek-leka from your father’s house.” He observes that the only other use of this particular form in the OT comes in Genesis 22:2, where Abraham is told, ” lek-leka to the land of Moriah” to sacrifice Isaac. Yahweh’s call to Abram to leave his father’s house is thus paralleled to the command to sacrifice his son. Abram tears himself away twice, in opposite directions: He leaves... Read more

Abram’s exodus

Last updated on: October 18, 2010 at 12:52 pm By Peter Leithart

Genesis 12:10-20 is clearly an exodus story, but Jerome Walsh ( Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative ) points out that the exodus story is told chiastically. The following is a modified version of his outline: A. Abram in Egypt to escape famine, 12:10 B. Sarai taken to harem, 12:11-15 (Sarai poses as sister) C. Pharaoh treats Abram well, 12:16 C’. Yahweh strikes Pharaoh with plagues, 12:17-19a B’. Pharaoh returns Sarai, 12:19b (“She is my sister”) A’. Pharaoh expels... Read more

Abram’s exodus

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

Exhortation

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

Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is a bloody business. At the beginning of the plagues, Yahweh turns the Nile to blood, and in the last plague the Israelites protect themselves by slaughtering lambs and smearing blood on the doorways of their houses. Passover is the beginning of new moons, and afterwards Israel sheds the blood of bulls and goats every day of the year. Worship is a bloody business too. In the new covenant too, every blessing we enjoy as Christians... Read more

Eucharistic meditation

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

Exodus 12:7-8: And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. It’s no accident that the book of Exodus begins with courageous midwives who bring Israelite boys safely into the world in defiance of the blustering threats of Pharaoh. Exodus is a story of birth. Throughout... Read more

Causality and Pure Nature

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

Jacob Schmutz’s contribution to Surnaturel: A Controversy at the Heart of the Twentieth-Century Thomistic Thought (Faith and Reason: Studies in Catholic Theology and Philosophy) is a dense exploration of the development of the theology of pure nature in the context of shifting notions of causality, concursus, action. His study supports de Lubac’s contention that late medieval and post-Reformation scholasticism contributed to the formation of a “naturalistic” outlook in which man could “close himself up” in his nature. The article is... Read more

Mirror and Lens

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

The relation of language and thought has been a contested issue in philosophy and linguistics for several centuries. Guy Deutscher’s contribution ( Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages ) sorts through what we know and what we don’t know about that question. The book is divided into two large sections: Language as mirror and language as lens. Under the first metaphor, he probes the question of whether language reflects nature or culture. Initially, he... Read more

Bride Price

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

My colleague Toby Sumpter suggests that the plunder Israel takes from Egypt is a “bride price” as well as the proper gift for a manumitted slave. The “bride price” idea works. Pharaoh has, like the Pharaoh of Abram’s day, claimed a bride for himself, Yahweh’s bride. He has tried to seize her, and now he is sending her out, under duress, to her true husband, Yahweh. To compensate for his attempt to seize her, she takes gold and silver and... Read more