What the Law Cannot Do

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:48 pm By Peter Leithart

Each is responsible for all, Dostoevsky says. He didn’t mean that no one was responsible. He meant that responsibility spreads far. In his intriguing Rosenstock-Huessy-inspired Power, Love, and Evil , Wayne Cristaudo illustrates Dostoevsky’s point with a review of the family history of Gary Gilmore. Extreme violence went back several generations in Gilmore’s family, making it impossible simply to “blame the perpetrator, or, failing that, the parents.” Cristaudo says that Gilmore’s parents “were no more able to be real ‘adults’... Read more

Adulterous Generation

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

John Nolland points out in his commentary on Matthew that the combination “evil and adulterous” is found in the LXX of Hosea 3:1, applied to Gomer. He suggests that by using this phrase, Jesus is echoing Hosea, and implicitly comparing the Jews to the generation of the exile. This makes sense of the following verses in Matthew 12, where Jesus moves from condemning the adulterous generation to saying that He will give the sign of Jonah: And Jonah, of course,... Read more

Me and the Bush Police State

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

I don’t want to over-dramatize, but I had a taste of the Bush police state this weekend. I crossed the line, and felt the force of the federal government bearing down on me. I tasted totalitarianism. I was dragged into The Castle, playing the role of K. The TSA tried to take my Trader Joe’s salsa. (more…) Read more

Giving signs

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:42 pm By Peter Leithart

Jesus rebukes the scribes and Pharisees for seeking signs, but He promises to give a sign, the sign of Jonah. Two observations: First: Signs are given; signs are gifts. Second, the first time we hear of “giving signs” in the Bible is Deuteronomy 13, which describes Israel’s proper response to a false prophet who attempts to seduce Israel away from Yahweh. Perhaps Jesus is suggesting that the scribes and Pharisees are looking to be seduced; seeking a sign is seeking... Read more

Adulterous generation

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees as an “evil and adulterous generation” for demanding a sign. Israel is being conceived, clearly, as a faithless bride; and she is a faithless bride because, in the face of countless signs of Yahweh’s favor to Israel in Jesus, she is still searching for some indication of that favor. They are like the generation of the exodus, an “evil generation” (Deuteronomy 1:35). One of the interesting things about Jesus’ statement is that the generation... Read more

Where was Augustine?

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:48 pm By Peter Leithart

The Reformed Orthodox were entirely correct to discern a fundamental threat and challenge in the spread of Cartesianism, especially as regards the relation of philosophy and theology. But it’s hard to read about their responses without sadness. “Whatever reason brings out of its stinking heaps must be subordinate to the word of God and be measured by it as its touchstone but not opposed to it,” says Arnoldus. Quite true, all of it. But how long can people be told... Read more

Descartes, Pro and Contra

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

On the one hand: Method is a discipleship – a “following after.” And the Cartesian methodus is in conflict with the “following after” demanded of a Christian disciple. Here, Descartes offers a different way, a different truth and life. The Christian “method” of knowledge and wisdom is discipleship, not doubt or the pursuit of “clear and distinct ideas.” On the other hand: Descartes, the orthodox charged, confused the Creator and creature, demanding for man not just the earth but “the... Read more

Cartesian critique

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:48 pm By Peter Leithart

Bizer again, on Melchior Leydekker’s summary of the Cartesian critique of Reformed orthodoxy: “The Cartesians reproach the orthodox to the effect that their theology is not scriptural, that they have re-introduced Catholic scholasticism into the Church; that they hinder every advance in knowledge and their work does not have scientific character; that they prefer the study of dogmatics to the detriment of the general scientific education of theologians; that they exaggerate the importance of controversies and are not prepared to... Read more

Lutherans at bay

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

At several points, Bizer notes that the Reformed orthodox critics of Cartesian philosophy and its application to theology formulated their arguments to buttress their opposition to Lutheran ideas of the real presence. Peter van Mastricht “resists the proposition that God could do something contradictory; one of the reasons for this is that the Reformed position regarding the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper would then be abandoned in favor of the Lutherans.” Read more

Orthodoxy’s failure

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:05 am By Peter Leithart

Reformed Orthodoxy failed to stop the spread of Cartesian philosophy, despite vigorous efforts. Why? Bizer suggests that the orthodox critique often adopted much of what it criticized. In Martin Schoock’s notorious response to Descartes, “there is no word . . . about the fact that the Cartesian proof of God does not lead to the Christian concept of God and is therefore beside the point! No word at all of a christologically based doctrine of God! What Voetius and his... Read more