Peter J. Leithart

Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods, 5) observes that “Choral song was everywhere in the Greek world, and even if we attempt to avoid the risk of viewing the entirety of Greek civilization through the choral lens, it is nevertheless clear that dancing in the Greek khoros was a ubiquitous, . . . . Continue Reading »

A TLS review of two books of the Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy notes the hints of holiness in his novels:“Often in his work, however, there are residual glimmers of the numinous. McCarthy, who was raised a Roman Catholic, is often read as an unconventional religious writer, or . . . . Continue Reading »

Stephen Walsh’s Musorgsky and His Circletells the story of the moguchaya kuchka the “Might Little Heap” of Russian intellectuals surrounding Musorgsky - César Cui, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Mily Balakirev.In his TLS review of the book, Paul Griffiths . . . . Continue Reading »

Malcolm Gladwell’s lengthy essayon the Branch Davidians normalizes and humanizes a group that even to American Christians was a strange, unnerving cult. Gladwell presents a damning indictment of the FBI response to the extreme Adventist community that was destroyed near Waco in . . . . Continue Reading »

Trevaskis (Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus) proposes a chiastic outline of Leviticus 21-22:Priestly defects (Lev. 21.16-24) A. [4 defects] blind, lame, disfigured, an ‘overgrown limb’ (????) (v. 18) B. [2 defects] impaired leg, impaired hand (v. 19) C. [6 . . . . Continue Reading »

Van Ruler is an advocate of “theocracy,” but he at the same time insists that toleration is “an absolute necessity in the state” (Calvinist Trinitarianism and Theocentric Politics, 186).It is necessary because every people is religiously mixed, because intolerance invariably . . . . Continue Reading »

Bad question, says Justin Barrett (Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology, 26):“No aspect of our biological development, let along our cognitive development occurs without important contributions from both our biological endowment and our environment. Cells don’t divide and multiply . . . . Continue Reading »

I review Leigh Trevaskis’s Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticusat the Trinity House site. . . . . Continue Reading »

Donald Rayfield reviews two recent essay collections on cultural relations between England and Russia in the TLS: Anthony Cross, A People Passing Rude: British Responses to Russian Culture and Russia in Britain, 1880-1940, edited by Rebecca Beasley and Philip Ross Bullock.The links . . . . Continue Reading »

Are the ritual texts of Leviticus “practical” texts designed to guide priests and people in sacrificial and other rituals?If so, argues Leigh Trevaskis in Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus, they don’t do a very good job of it. Too much is left out, and things that are . . . . Continue Reading »