Peter J. Leithart

Odd how things come in clumps. Prior to last evening, I had never even heard of the popular Victorian novelist and historian Edward Bulwer-Lytton. I first came across his name in an intriguing TLS article by Oswyn Murray, who claimed that Bulwer-Lytton had a special place in the development of . . . . Continue Reading »

It is a strange feeling to be reminded by a radical like Terry Eagleton of the existence of what Russel Kirk called the permanent things. Writing in Sweet Violence , his recent study of tragedy, Eagleton says “Radicals are suspicious of the transhistorical because it suggests that there are . . . . Continue Reading »

1) There’s a new symmetry to the story of the challenge to Jesus’ authority in verses 1-8. On the one hand, there’s a clear chiastic structure: A. Authority: Question B. John’s baptism: Question B. John’s baptism: No answer A. Authority: No answer There’s also . . . . Continue Reading »

INTRODUCTION Once Jesus has cleared out the buyers and sellers in the temple, he turns the temple into a house of teaching (19:47-48). Furious at his attacks on them and the provocative action in the temple, and envious of the crowds, the chief priests, scribes, and other leaders look for ways to . . . . Continue Reading »

If the disciples are silenced, Jesus says in answer to the Pharisees who demand that they stop hailing Him as king, then these very stones will cry out. He is on His way into Jerusalem, and the stones are the same stones that will someday be thrown down, the stones of the city and temple. The . . . . Continue Reading »

Roger Scruton reviews David Hurst’s *On Westernism* in the January 23 issue of the TLS . While challenging Hurst’s use of Richard Dawkins’s concept of “meme,” he concludes that it is an important book about the contours and imposition of the global ideology that Hurst . . . . Continue Reading »

Jed Perl, art critic for the New Republic , has a rant about John Currin and other contemporary painters in the Feb 16 issue of TNR . Scathing is too weak for this review. He says that Currin produces trash, and incompetent trash at that. Currin believes in nothing other than his own . . . . Continue Reading »

Peter Dickson reviews Michael Wood’s BBC film In Search of Shakespeare in the Feb 16 edition of The Weekly Standard . He points out why many scholars are not convinced by Wood’s claim that Shakespeare was a Catholic He admits that “the evidence for the staunch Catholicism of . . . . Continue Reading »

Eucharistic meditation, Feb 15: Luke 19:5-7 In one sense, both of the events in Jericho are about sight and blindness. On the way in to Jericho, Jesus healed a blind man, and at the beginning of our sermon text today we were introduced to a man who wanted, above everything else, to . . . . Continue Reading »

Exhortation for February 15: Since the time of David, Psalm-singing has been the center of prayer and singing for the people of God. That is obvious in Judaism, for from the time of Solomon’s temple, through the “Second temple” period after the exile, and into the period of the . . . . Continue Reading »