Yoder’s Middle Ages

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:47 pm By Peter Leithart

Despite his characterization of the medieval system as “Constantinian,” Yoder recognizes that “the risk of caricature is great,” and he offers this balanced assessment: “the church in the Middle Ages retained a more than vestigial consciousness of its distinctness from the world. The higher level of morality asked of the clergy, the international character of the hierarchy, the visibility of the hierarchy in opposition to the princes, the gradual moral education of barbarians into monogamy and legality, foreign missions, apocalypticism... Read more

Demythologizing

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:53 pm By Peter Leithart

Bultmann notoriously claimed that no one who switches on an electric light or uses the cutting edge technology of the “wireless” can believe in a world of demons and angels. That’s not much of an argument, but insofar as it is one, it seems to be: Electric lights show that humans can control the world; if angels and demons exist, human beings are impotent pawns of invisible powers; the electric light therefore disproves the mythological world of the NT. But... Read more

Cursed ground

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

In an elder meeting this week, Doug Wilson pointed to the promise at Noah’s birth that he would bring rest from work and from the toil arising from the cursed ground (Genesis 6:29). Doug made the interesting point that Noah embodies a reconciliation of herder and farmer, of Cain and Abel: He is an animal husbandman, but after the flood he turns farmer, planting a vineyard. That sparked off several thoughts, for which Doug is not responsible. (more…) Read more

Ask him

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

Another student points out the rhetorical effect of the words of the parents of the blind man in John 9. When the Pharisees ask if the blind man was their son, and born blind, they say “Ask him. He is of age.” When they do ask him, the blind man says “I was healed by Jesus; He is a prophet; do you want to be His disciples?” Despite their fear, the parents are directing the Pharisees to the right source.... Read more

Pilate the Priest

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:04 am By Peter Leithart

Jesus’ trial before Pilate takes place near Passover, but it’s a Day of Atonement, as Barabbas is selected to go free and Jesus sent outside the camp bearing the sins of His people. A student, Stephanie Beauchamp, points to another Day-of-Atonement theme in John’s account. Throughout the narrative, Pilate is the mediator between the Jews, who stay outside the Praetorium to avoid contamination, and Jesus, who is inside. In and out, in and out, Pilate is playing the role of... Read more

Church and Empire

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:49 pm By Peter Leithart

According to Thomas Heilke, “the church under Constantine is ‘imperialized,’ and made ‘subservient’ to the interests of the empire.” That judgment rests partly on factual errors (e.g., Constantine took charge of the church’s affairs, administered church discipline, decided on orthodoxy by presiding at Nicea). But it also rests on a basic misperception of Heilke’s own argument and data. (more…) Read more

Anabaptist Christendom

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

Gerard Schlabach, though working in a Yoderian tradition, warns that wholesale condemnation of “Constantinianism” is a mistake: “there is even something right about the vision of Christendom – as that societas in which every right relationship with God is rightly ordering and reintegrating every relationship and all of life.” Christendom is, in fact, “a vision of shalom .” Read more

Societas perfecta

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

RW Southern describes the medieval church’s conception of its place in the world: “the church was much more than the source of coercive power. It was not just a government, however grandiose its operations. It was the whole of human society subject to the will of God . . . It was membership of the church that gave men a thoroughly intelligible purpose and place in God’s universe. So the church was not only a state, it was the state... Read more

Flesh

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm By Peter Leithart

Yoder ( Body Politics ) suggests that “flesh” in the New Testament can refer to “ethnicity.” Citing 2 Corinthians 5, he writes that “Paul is defending the missionary policies, for which he was being criticized, according to wich on principle he makes Jews and Gentiles pray and eat together. What the NEB calls ‘worldly standards’ would more precisely be rendered as ‘ethnically.’ The phrase kata sarka in verse 16, literally ‘according to the flesh,’ means ‘ethnically.’” Yoder is certainly correct... Read more

Structure of Galatians 6

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

Galatians 6 is roughly organized as a chiasm: A. Bear one another’s burdens B. Boasting in oneself and not another C. Sowing and reaping; flesh D. Do good C’. Judaizers want good show in flesh/boast in flesh B’. Boasting only in Christ Jesus: crucified to world A’. I bear stigmata (more…) Read more