Good and bad religion

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:43 pm By Peter Leithart

Cavanaugh points out that until the middle of the 20th century, American law regarded religion as a social glue rather than a provocation to civil war. The “social glue” view is of course widespread in sociology (from Durkheim) and anthropology. So, why is Western religion considered divisive and disruptive, while non-Western primitive and tribal religion considered socially unitive? My guess is that the issue is the form that religion takes. Anthropologists tell us that traditional tribal relations are ritualistic and... Read more

Wars to End Wars

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:50 pm By Peter Leithart

Friedman notes that the end of major wars frequently evokes an unwarranted euphoria. Every war is considered not only a war to end wars, but a war that has ended war: After every major war – what we might call systemic war in which the entire international system convulsed – there was a belief that in the future war could be contained. After the Napoleonic Wars, there was the Congress of Vienna. After World War I, there was the League... Read more

America’s Secret War

Last updated on: August 12, 2010 at 4:48 am By Peter Leithart

A lot has happened since George Friedman published his America’s Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies in 2003 (with a paperback edition in 2005). Still, Friedman’s book is the most satisfying treatment of recent American history that I’ve found. Founder and director of the private intelligence organization, Stratfor, Friedman speaks with authority, clarity, and balance. The early chapters of his book examine the rise of al Qaeda and the strategy behind 9/11. Though he... Read more

America’s Secret War

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:46 pm By Peter Leithart

Jew, Gentile; Old, new

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:45 pm By Peter Leithart

In answer to a question from a former student about the relations of Jews and Gentiles in Old and New, I offered these points as coordinates for that question: 1. Yes, Gentiles were saved under the Old Covenant, and Israel’s contact with an success with Gentiles increased as time went on. Solomon influences Hiram and other kings in a way that Moses never did; once Israel is scattered around the Mediterranean, kings and emperors start confessing Yahweh as the God... Read more

Anti-Anthropomorphism

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:46 pm By Peter Leithart

In his The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought (Oxford Early Christian Studies) , Paul Gavrilyuk challenges the “fall into Hellenism” thesis especially as it pertains to the patristic use of the notion of impassibility. Early in the book, relying on the work of Charles Fritsch, he notes a number of places where the LXX downplays the anthropomorphic and anthropopathic force of the Hebrew. For instance, “The Septuagint renders several passages in which Yahweh is said... Read more

Dark Lord

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:51 pm By Peter Leithart

God is Lord of light. Everyone says that. But that’s not much help to me, since I’m lost in the dark. If God is going to be my Lord, He has to be Lord of light and dark, death and life. It’s not enough for Him to have first place in creation. He has to be the firstborn of the dead, so that in all things He might be preeminent. Hence the incarnation: The Son took flesh to become Lord... Read more

Pursuing Riches, again

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

Jim Rogers of Texas A&M writes: “I’m not as certain as you are that it’s generally true that ‘If there’s one thing that Americans want, it is to be rich.’ This is, presumably, an empirical question, and so my armchair observations are certainly not to be preferred to your own. Nonetheless, while there certainly are people who are desperate to become wealthy – you can feel it in them when in their presence – my own sense is that most... Read more

Sources of Quran

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Christoph Luxenberg (a pseudonym) has argued that “In its origin the Quran is a Syro-Aramaic liturgical book, with hymns and extracts from Scriptures which might have been used in sacred Christian services.” Philip Jenkins summarizes some of the evidence: “The very name Quran, he thinks, derives from the root qr’ , ‘to read,’ and it is equivalent to the Syriac qeryana , the church lectionary used to proclaim the gospel in public readings. In his view, ‘the Quran intended itself... Read more

Moderation

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

“Do all in moderation” can sound ascetic, life-denying. Me genoito ! Moderation is an aesthetic term, and as an ethical standard combines aesthetic and moral criteria. It’s a musical ideal. Moderatus is linked to modus , measure, limit, rhythm, song. Epieikes in Philippians 4:5 is “suitable, fitting,” built from eikos , reasonable, that is, what is a proper eikon , what conforms to the pattern on the mountain. “Be moderate” means “modulate.” It means doing things in the... Read more