Skeptical faith

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

Richard Popkin ( The History of Scepticism ) writes of a crisis of skepticism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: “With the rediscovery in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of writings of the Greek Pyrrhonist Sextus Empiricus, the arguments and views of the Greek sceptics became part of the philosophical core of the religious struggles then taking place. The problem of finding a criterion of truth, first raised in theological disputes, was then later raised with regard to natural knowledge,... Read more

Erasmus on Luther

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm By Peter Leithart

Erasmus and Luther eventually squared off regarding the freedom of the will, but in earlier letters Erasmus cautions against judging Luther too hastily or harshly and pushes the burden of proof on Luther’s opponents. Erasmus was, after all, a reforming Catholic. For instance: “I do not suppose myself learned enough to pronounce on another man’s faith, nor do I claim sufficient authority to be willing to do so, . . . nor am I sufficiently deranged to be ready to... Read more

Mountain to plain

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

Isaiah tells Israel to prepare for the coming of Yahweh by leveling mountains and raising valleys (40:3-5), and when Yahweh comes the mountains melt away (Psalm 97:5; Micah 1:4). But the angel of Yahweh tells Zechariah that the mountains will give way to Zerubabbel (Zechariah 4:7), a true son of David and son of Yahweh. Jesus makes the same promise to His disciples; they are all Zerubbabels, who can say to this mountain “Cast yourself into the sea,” and it... Read more

Zechariah 5:1-4

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

A couple of notes on the first vision of Zechariah 5, and then translation. 1) Verse 3 is difficult to translate, and is somewhat surprising. The scroll represents, the angel says, the curse going throughout the land, but the effect of the curse in verse 3 is not negative and destructive but purgative. Everyone who steals, the angel says, will be “freed” or “exempted.” The verb means “be innocent” (Judges 15:2) or “remain unpunished” (Jeremiah 25:29). At times, it can... Read more

Zechariah 4

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

Some notes on Zechariah 4, with a rough translation following. 1) Structurally, the passage is most clearly organized around the exchanges between the interpreting angel and Zechariah. Most obvious is the parallel between verses 4-5 and 11-13; together with the angel’s response, these questions form a frame around a central section which is (uniquely in this chapter, cf. 1:1, 7; 6:9; 7:1, etc.) delivered by the word of Yahweh (vv. 8-10). Thus, the structure is roughly: A. Vision, vv. 1-3... Read more

Memory, 2

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

Responding to my earlier post on memory, Wes Callihan writes: “We can’t always go back to the physical surroundings; that’s the problem. We can, however, go back in our imaginations and it seems that that was what the classical art of memory (the ‘palace of memory’) was all about. A sort of retaining the connection between the senses and the thing we desire to remember. Or a sort of bringing the physical surroundings with us. Francis Yates ( The Art... Read more

Sermon notes, Fourth Sunday After Easter

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:02 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION Nowhere in the Bible do we find as many references to demons as in the gospels. When Jesus arrives, Satan begins an all-out assault, and this provokes the great conflict at the center of history: Satan and his demons against the Spirit-filled son of David. THE TEXT “Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were... Read more

Eucharistic Meditation, Third Week After Easter

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:39 pm By Peter Leithart

Matthew 12:8: For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is an institution, a rule, a commandment, a marker of time, a social practice that distinguishes Jews from Gentiles. It is also a basic structure of human history. The creation week begins with the creation of light and the separation of light and darkness, and climaxes with God entering into rest on the Sabbath. God labors for six days, dividing and moving and filling, and then... Read more

Exhortation, Third Sunday After Easter

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

Jesus knows how to confront. He issues a series of eight woes against the Pharisees and scribes, and they are very severe. When He is challenged, He often raises the stakes instead of qualifying himself. He knows what it’s like to attack and not back down. In our sermon text, though, Jesus learns that the Pharisees are plotting to kill Him, and He withdraws. Matthew sees this as a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the Servant who “will not quarrel,... Read more

Nietzsche the Christian

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:09 am By Peter Leithart

Stephen Kern suggestively notes that Bergson, Proust, and Freud, who all “insisted that the past was an essential source of the full life,” had Jewish backgrounds, and he doesn’t think this an accident: “Both Judaism and Christianity share a reverence for the past and argue their validity partly from tradition. The implicit ethic is that old is good.” But Judaism is older, and if old is good older is better: “It is possible that the insistence of these men that... Read more