Peter J. Leithart

John Howard Yoder’s now-classic The Politics of Jesus sparked a revolution. For centuries, Jesus’ lordship had been foundational to Western political thought. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesus had become irrelevant. Locke doesn’t use the name “Jesus” in either of his two treatises on government. Adam Smith mentions Jesus only once in Wealth of Nations, in a footnote reference to the “compagnie de Jesus.” There isn’t even a footnote reference to Jesus in Theory of Moral Sentiments. . . . Continue Reading »

Joseph hasn’t received nearly as much attention as Mary over the centuries. There are no lengthy debates about whether Joseph is a co-redeemer, and no one to my knowledge has entertained the possibility that Joseph was perpetually celibate. Yet Joseph is as critical to the Christmas story as Mary. Consider the counterfactuals . . . Continue Reading »

Advent looks back to celebrate the coming of the Son of God in human flesh. As Advent lectionary readings show, God comes in many ways, and so Advent also looks ahead to God’s future interventions in history, and especially to his final advent at the last day… . Continue Reading »

A few weeks ago at the Huffington Post, Bruce Chilton of Bard College traced the rise of American Premillennialism, the view that Jesus will return to reign on earth for a thousand years. Chilton concluded that “readings of the Apocalypse that predict millennial catastrophe” produced a “counter-reaction” from secularists and mainline Christians who ignore the Revelation of John entirely. . . . Continue Reading »

The Reformation isn’t over. But Protestantism is, or should be. . . . Continue Reading »

It’s a common complaint that patristic Trinitarian theology obscured the gospel by relying on the premises and categories of Greek thought. Though rarely as extreme as Adolf von Harnack, who claimed that the Nicene Creed was a symptom of an “acute Hellenization” of the Church, theologians today can put off a recognizably Harnackian scent… . Continue Reading »

In academia, Constantine is suddenly hot. Several major new biographies have appeared, joined by new editions of older volumes and a spate of monographs on aspects of Constantine’s empire and its aftermath. Academic conferences on Constantine have become a cottage industry… . Continue Reading »

Rousing Soviet songs surround us as we pass through a gloomy gauntlet of titanic statues on our way to Kyiv’s Museum of the Great Patriotic War. My friends, a Polish and a Ukrainian pastor, remember the songs, which played incessantly on the radio during their childhood. The sculpture complex depicts lunging soldiers and hardy peasants in dignified poses, men pointing guns and women handling bombs, boys and girls, all united in a total war effort to defeat the Nazis… . Continue Reading »

I have occasionally given students a “pop culture” survey that tests their knowledge of movies, music, and TV. They do scarily well. Some of them remember advertising jingles and silly sitcoms from my childhood. Then I give them a Bible trivia quiz, asking them to identify the daughters of Zelophahad or give the weight of Goliath’s armor or identify Jeremiah’s birthplace. On that test they typically do, shall we say, less well… . Continue Reading »

A couple of weeks ago, the fourth of our ten children got married. We’re down to three at home, our version of empty-nesting. And it’s not over. Soon enough, the other children will leave, and my wife and I will be back where we started, just the two of us. Then we’ll both die, and the Peter Leithart family will vanish. This is as it should be. Families exist to die… . Continue Reading »