Prince’s Poo

Last updated on: June 30, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Dan Piepenbring comments briefly in The Paris Review on a bizarre fashion trend of the eighteenth century: “During Marie Antoinette’s time, for instance, there was a brief craze for caca-dauphin, a shade of brown that resembled the color of the new prince Louis-Joseph’s soiled diapers. In the most fashionable circles, people dressed to celebrate the royal bowel movements.” He quotes from Michael Taube’s review of The Sensational Past: This awakening of our senses led to some astonishing results, from sensible to... Read more

Canon and Communio

Last updated on: June 30, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In her essay in Christianity, Democracy, and the Shadow of Constantine, Mary Doak unpacks some features of a Trinitarian, communion-oriented political theology. She doesn’t, however, think that communio ecclesiology implies pacificism, and, as a feminist theologian, she worries that communio can be used to blunt the force of necessary conflict and protest on behalf of justice. Theologically, she sees the issue as a failure to link Trinitarian political theology with Scripture. Understatedly, she writes, “Perhaps . . . more theological attention should... Read more

Reverse Exodus

Last updated on: June 30, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The book of Acts ends with a sailor’s yarn. Paul has appealed to Caesar, and is sailing toward Italy when the ship hits a squall. Luke gives a detailed account of the efforts to save the ship and the final shipwreck at Malta, during which all 276 people on board are saved (Acts 27). It’s one of the most action-packed passages in the Bible. A water-trial like this can’t help but remind a Bible reader of the exodus from Egypt.... Read more

Not Listening

Last updated on: June 30, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Luke Bretherton argues (Christianity, Democracy and the Shadow of Constantine) that “For the church, listening is the constitutive political act” (71). This is true in part because “Through listening and responding to the Word of God, the Church is assembled as a public body—the ekklesia—out of the world. This initiatory act of listening forms the body of Christ” (71). It’s true also because listening is “a primary form of faithful witness within political life.” By listening, the church affirms that... Read more

Under the Kanun

Last updated on: June 29, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Bessian Vorpsi, a young writer from Tirana, makes headlines in the Albanian capital when he decides to spend his honeymoon on the Rrafsh, the High Plateau, a semi-autonomous portion of Albania governed by the detailed rules of the medieval Kanun. He and his wife Diana visit sites about which Bessian has written, and along the way he explains the principles of the Kanun to his beautiful young wife. Bessian knows all about the code, but he has never lived under it, never killed... Read more

Tragedy of Asa

Last updated on: June 29, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

King Asa of Judah made a strong start, purging the land of idols, altars, and images, and winning a war against the ginormous Cushite army led by Zerach. It all unraveled in his final years. From his thirty-fifth year to the forty-first year, when his reign came to an end, Asa was plagued by war and eventually suffering from a disease. Things start to go badly with another war. When Zerah attacked with his overwhelming force, Asa prayed, presumably toward... Read more

Mystery Play

Last updated on: June 28, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his quirky little essay on Benedict XVI, The Mystery of Evil, Giorgio Agamben cites Odo Casel’s finding that “the term mysterion indicates a praxis, an action or a drama in the theatrical sense of the term as well, that is, a set of gestures, acts, and words through which a divine action or passion is efficaciously actualized in the world and time for the salvation of those who participate in it” (28). This, he argues, is what Paul means... Read more

Nationless States

Last updated on: June 27, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In an essay contributed to Christianity, Democracy, and the Shadow of Constantine, Capodistrias Hammerli looks at and through the Lautsi case to expose the rift between Eastern and Western Europe. The case began when Mrs. Soile Lautsi filed suit against the Italian government for putting crucifixes on the walls of public schools. She claimed that the crucifixes violated the principle of laicite, which requires the state to maintain religious neutrality. The Italian courts rejected her claim, but in 2009, the Chamber... Read more

Oneself in Another

Last updated on: June 27, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his study of The Power of God in the Trinitarian theology of Gregory of Nyssa, Michel Rene Barnes distinguishes what he calls “Nicene” theology from later “pro-Nicene” theology. One of the key issues has to do with the conception of divine power, and the way it is elaborated in connection with the Father-Son relation. Arians taught a “double power” theory: “Both Arius and Asterius seem to have taught that titles like Wisdom, Power, Word are used in two senses. In... Read more

Jehoshaphat’s Betrayal

Last updated on: September 11, 2017 at 5:57 pm By Peter Leithart

Ahab of Israel pops into Chronicles for the first time in 2 Chronicles 18. Readers of Chronicles don’t know the background that 1-2 Kings provides—about Ahab’s father Omri, about Baal worship and the temple of Baal in Samaria, about Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel. Careful readers of Chronicles will notice something amiss. We’re already alerted to suspect the kings of Israel. Jehoshaphat leaves Jerusalem to visit Ahab in Samaria (18:2). As William Johnstone points out (1 & 2 Chronicles, 2.83), things never go... Read more