Peter J. Leithart

I review Richard Beck’s stimulating The Slavery of Deathat the Trinity House . . . . Continue Reading »

Jeremiah’s message to Judah is that the Lord has given the earth into hands of his “servant,” Nebuchadnezzar: “I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him” . . . . Continue Reading »

In his book on Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God: In Your Light We Shall See Light, Christopher Beeley takes a chapter to describe the Trinitarian foundations of Gregory’s theology of pastoral care. Gregory’s Orations, he points out, are organized to . . . . Continue Reading »

Orthodox theologian John Romanides describes in The Ancestral Sin(162-3) how the fear of death leads to evil practices and habits: “Through the power of death and the devil, sin that reigns in men gives rise to fear and anxiety and to the general instinct of self-preservation or survival. . . . . Continue Reading »

TS Eliot presciently warned in his “Idea of a Christian Society” (in Christianity and Culture) that liberalism has the capacity to turn into its opposite: “Liberalism still permeates ourminds and affects our attitude towards much of life. That Liberalism may be a tendency towards . . . . Continue Reading »

Chesterton (The Thing), pre-channeling Alasdair MacIntyre: “the modern world, with its modern movements, is living on its Catholic capital. It is using, and using up, the truths that remain to it out of the old treasury of Christendom; including, of course, many truths known to pagan antiquity . . . . Continue Reading »

Timothy Snyder reports on depressing developments in Ukraine: “President Viktor Yanukovych, in having the deputies of his Party of Regions endorse an extraordinary packet of legislation, has arrogated decisive political power to himself. After hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians spent weeks in . . . . Continue Reading »

A debate on natural law is brewing in my little world, and here’s a little contribution.Natural law advocates insist that there are things that We Can’t Not Know, as J.Budziszewski puts it. Paul agrees: “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes, His eternal . . . . Continue Reading »

Gary Greenberg raises doubts about “brain death” as a definition of death. The standard was introduced largely to facilitate organ donation and transplant, and it has become a fixture of bioethics. Greenberg points out that “brain death is not quite as certain as these bioethicists . . . . Continue Reading »

What does God commit Himself to when He makes a covenant with Abraham? Genesis 17 gives a number of specifics: Abraham will be a multitude of nations, his name will become Abraham, Yahweh will be God to Abraham and to his seed and will give them the land. Twice in Genesis 17, the covenant includes . . . . Continue Reading »