Peter J. Leithart

“Dangerous criminals dont turn violent. They just stay that way.” That’s the conclusion of Richard Tremblay of University College Dublin. Gangs of teens and twenties act like toddlers, only with stronger bodies and working weapons. Normally toddler violence peaks at 24 months, but . . . . Continue Reading »

Psalm 87 is a Psalm of Gentile inclusion. Five nations, several of them traditional enemies of Israel - Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia - are born again, given a fresh genealogy as if they were naturally born citizens of Zion. Psalm 87 is the Ephesians 2 of the Psalter (or, more . . . . Continue Reading »

The ideal king of Psalm 72 rules with justice and brings peace, and he does this when he “judges ( shaphat ) the afflicted of the people, saves the children, of the needy, and crushes the oppressor” (v. 4). The NASB translates shaphat as “vindicate,” a good translation in . . . . Continue Reading »

Jason Bintz writesto offer a gloss on my discussion of 1 Corinthians 6:11 as a baptismal passage . The rest of this post is from Jason: “I do see in this text a baptismal formula. In particular, I believe this is a baptismal formula based on Jesus’s baptism by John. The ordo in 1 Cor . . . . Continue Reading »

Francis condemns what he describes as an economy of “exclusion and inequality .” Many have taken that as a signal of a leftward shift in Papal teaching. I have my doubts about that diagnosis, and that’s partly based on the way that Francis diagnoses the problem. The economic . . . . Continue Reading »

Francis’s exhortation has gotten attention from the press mainly because of its economic observations. But the starting point for those observations is evangelical: “To whom should she go first? When we read the Gospel we find a clear indication: not so much our friends and wealthy . . . . Continue Reading »

Francis I offers this helpful summary of the task of theologians and the role of “secular” scholarship in the church: The “task of exegetes and theologians to help ‘the judgment of the Church to mature.’ The other sciences also help to accomplish this, each in its own . . . . Continue Reading »

God, Francis I writes in Evangelii Gaudium , “is for ever young and a constant source of newness.” And this means that the church needs to be prepare for continual refreshment and renewal: “With this newness he is always able to renew our lives and our communities, and even if the . . . . Continue Reading »

A lot of our happiness is outside our control, a University of Minnesota research project concludes. In that portion that we do control, four factors stand out: faith, family, community, and work. Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute finds the last the most surprising: “Popular . . . . Continue Reading »

I summarize Barth’s profound meditations on the incarnation at the Trinity House site. . . . . Continue Reading »