Rival Tidinesses

Last updated on: February 3, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The Reformation and the Catholic reaction to it caused a massive split within Western Christendom, and further divisions proliferated from that original split. As Diarmaid MacCulloch points out (Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490–1700), that is only one part of the story: “The Protestant communities, which for a variety of reasons and motives cut themselves off from Rome, also cut themselves off from many possible devotional roads to God, because “they saw such routes as part of Roman corruption. In one... Read more

Disenchantment and Anthropomorphism

Last updated on: February 3, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

At the beginning of their Dialectic of Enlightenment, Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno define Enlightenment in terms of disenchantment of the world: “Enlightenment’s program was the disenchantment of the world. It wanted to dispel myths, to overthrow fantasy with knowledge. Bacon, ‘the father of experimental philosophy,’ brought these motifs together. He despised the exponents of tradition, who substituted belief for knowledge and were as unwilling to doubt as they were reckless in supplying answers. All this, he said, stood in... Read more

Tallying Up Trump

Last updated on: February 2, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Trump is an executive, used to making twenty-five major decisions a day. Now the press is watching every motion of his hand, and it looks as if he’s overturning the world as we have known it with each stroke of his pen. Tallying up pluses and minuses is a full-time job and not in my porfolio. I offer a few gleanings about his executive order on immigration, mostly from those wiser than I. Trump says that the travel restriction is... Read more

Priests, Levites, Bread

Last updated on: February 2, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

1 Chronicles 23 begins the concluding section of 1 Chronicles (chs. 23–29), which is mainly concerned with David’s arrangements for personnel and material of the temple. Chapter 23 consists of two chiastically arranged sections. The first is framed by references to David (vv. 1, 2, 6; 25–27). A. David old, organizes, 23:1–6 B. Levites: Gershonites, 23:7–11 C. Levites: Kohathites, 23:12 D. Sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses, 23:13–17 C’. Levites: Remainder of Kohathites, 23:18–20 B’. Levites: Merarites, 23:21–24 A’. David’s... Read more

Aging and Ends

Last updated on: February 1, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

A year ago, I had a long debate about aging with a Polish friend while driving from Poznan, Poland, to Rivne, Ukraine. My friend said he didn’t mind dying young, while I said I wanted to live to a ripe old age. My friend accused me of fearing death (not very true) and of being too arrogant to leave the stage (far truer). Actuarially, I’m a good bet. My maternal grandfather lived to 95, and I just visited my still-active... Read more

Ite, Missa Est

Last updated on: January 31, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Missional ecclesiology is all the rage these days, but for many being “missional” means downplaying or even eliminating concern for the “internal” life of the church, particularly its liturgical life. Missional and liturgical, mission and communio, are locked in zero-sum combat. That cannot be right. The liturgy is a means of communion with God, the Triune God whose being is in procession and whose action in the world is missio. We cannot have deep communion with this God without being... Read more

Eucharistic Sacrifice

Last updated on: January 31, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Daniel Waterland’s 1737 A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist includes a lengthy section on Eucharistic sacrifice that begins from the premise that Eucharistic sacrifice is a belief shared by the entire catholic church: “That the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in whole or in part, in a sense proper or improper, is a sacrifice of the Christian Church, is a point agreed upon among all knowing and sober divines, Popish, Lutheran, or Reformed.” The question is not whether it... Read more

Yahweh’s Sorrow

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

David’s census makes him a Pharaoh but he doesn’t end like Pharoah. It’s not exactly because he offers sacrifice (21:26). By the time he does that, the Lord has already relented (21:15). The chapter’s structure makes it clear that the Lord’s mercy is the turning point. The story is told in three sections: The census (vv. 1–6); the plague (vv. 7–15); and the sacrifice (vv. 16–27). The latter two sections are chiastically arranged. Verses 7–15 moves from Yahweh’s anger with... Read more

Righteousness and Relation

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

According to Robert Kolb (Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith, 125–8) Luther had a “relational” understanding of righteousness: “Whereas most medieval thinkers conceived of human ‘righteousness’ in terms of performance or activity, Luther believed that the concept rested on a deeper foundation. Righteousness is being what the person or thing is supposed to be. That identity issues naturally into action. . . . Relationship, for Luther, constituted a vital part of reality because God, as the first and fundamental reality,... Read more

Frackin’ Innovative

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

Vauhini Vara reports at The Atlantic about how US frackers beat OPEC. The story starts in 2014 when “U.S. shale oil represented about 5 percent of the oil being produced worldwide. But the process was expensive, which suggested to many that shale producers could not stay in business if oil prices dipped too far.” In a move widely viewed as a strike against fracking, OPEC kept production high despite falling prices. In late 2014, frackers needed to be able to... Read more

What does Paul say he does not do the good he wants to do, but instead does?