Peter J. Leithart

Samuel Johnson had scarcely finished his preface to Shakespeare when a new enthusiasm for Shakespeare gripped Germany. Herder led the charge, and Herder inspired Goethe: “Goethe, whose Gtz von Berlichingen (1771) was a history playclearly inspired by Shakespeare, but Goethes Shakespeare was . . . . Continue Reading »

Francis gives sound advice on preaching: The homily “is a distinctive genre, since it is preaching situated within the framework of a liturgical celebration; hence it should be brief and avoid taking on the semblance of a speech or a lecture. A preacher may be able to hold the attention of . . . . Continue Reading »

Francis sees an analogy between docetic Christology and some of the cultural trends of our technologicla era: “For just as some people want a purely spiritual Christ, without flesh and without the cross, they also want their interpersonal relationships provided by sophisticated equipment, by . . . . Continue Reading »

In analyzing the challenges facing evangelization, Francis points to the danger of fatigue: “The problem is not always an excess of activity, but rather activity undertaken badly, without adequate motivation, without a spirituality which would permeate it and make it pleasurable. As a result, . . . . Continue Reading »

O’Donovan and O’Donovan offer an insightful summary of the contribution of northern European Humanists (More, Erasmus) to early modern political theory ( From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought , 554-5). Their principles sound proto-Hauerwasian: . . . . Continue Reading »

My only, very slight, complaint about Jane Austen’s England is its somewhat misleading title. Roy and Lesley Adkins mention Austen regularly throughout the book, using her letters and novels as sources for sketching the social life of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. But . . . . Continue Reading »

In The Religious Sense , Luigi Giussani quotes from the Italian mathematician Francesco Severi, an associate of Einstein: He “proclaimed that the more he immersed himself in scientific research, the more evident it became to him that all that he discovered, as he proceeded step by step, was a . . . . Continue Reading »

Advent meditations on the holy family at Firstthings.com. . . . . 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 »

James of Viterbo ( From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought ) distinguishes between two modes of priesthood. “Individual” ( proprium ) priesthood belongs to “each of the faithful” insofar as each “offers to God for himself a spiritual . . . . Continue Reading »