Peter J. Leithart

For Jia Tolentino, marriages “holds about as much interest for me as a bag of playground rocks (some! Not much, though).”So she can’t understand why “18 women, 18 brides. 18 capable, wonderful, educated, privileged, professional, socially aware female humans” would go . . . . Continue Reading »

Christian thinkers have defined tyranny as the use of power to advance one’s own interests rather than the common good.A tyrant doesn’t have to be particularly powerful. A small-town mayor who manipulates the town council to help herself and her friends is a tyrant, albeit a petty one.A . . . . Continue Reading »

Like Thomas, Erasmus (The Education of a Christian Prince, 27-8) focuses attention on the differences between tyranny and good rule, and like Thomas he follows Aristotles claim that the foundational difference is between devotion to private interests versus devotion to the public good. Like Thomas, . . . . Continue Reading »

In one of the earliest of the Carolingian specula regiae, Jonas of Orleans (780-842) begins with a Gelasian summary of the relation between king and priest. Bishops are responsible for the spiritual health and salvation of all, including the king, and thus the bishop is higher than the king. Quoting . . . . Continue Reading »

In his contribution to From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective, Henri Blocher suggests that emphasizing Christ’s role as the Head of a new humanity helps to meet the “truly biblical concerns” of different . . . . Continue Reading »

Annalee Newitz explains why she loved her computer in her essay in Evocative Objects: Things We Think With: “I would recognize the feel of itskeyboard under my fingers in a darkened room. I haveworn two shiny spots on it where the palms of my handsrest when Im not typing. I carried it on my . . . . Continue Reading »

Objects are not just tools or things of beauty, writes Sherry Turkle in her introduction toEvocative Objects: Things We Think With. In addition, they are “companionsto our emotional lives or as provocations to thought. Thenotion of evocative objects brings together these two lessfamiliar . . . . Continue Reading »

According to Nicholas of Cusa, doxology is the highest form of science. This is so because a response of praise is a response to the inherent goodness of a thing. As Johannes Hoff explains (The Analogical Turn: Rethinking Modernity with Nicholas of Cusa, 19), “if our praise is genuine, and not . . . . Continue Reading »

Sherry Turkle’s Falling for Science: Objects in Mindis a fascinating collection of testimonials from engineers and scientists about the childhood experiences and objects that inspired their love for science. Turkle concludes (273-4) acknowledging that we cannot predict or measure what will . . . . Continue Reading »

Christopher Orr ponders the strange failures of adapting the stories of Elmore Leonard to the screen. The problem is tonal: Early film adaptations didn’t capture the wry humor of the books and short stories; later film adaptations turned up the comedy and lost the wryness.Orr suggests that . . . . Continue Reading »