Peter J. Leithart

Calvin’s early Eucharistic theology was neither Zwinglian nor Lutheran. It was Melanchthonian, argues Richard Muller in a 2010 Calvin Theological Journal essay: “Of great interest here is that the 1536 Institutio, despite its denial of a substantial presence of Christ’s natural . . . . Continue Reading »

Anthony Baker begins his mediation on the notion of “perfection,” Diagonal Advance: Perfection in Christian Theology , with the Romantic Prometheus and various responses to it. Deleuze and Guattari make an appearance, and one would think that they have put the Romantic well behind them. . . . . Continue Reading »

Andrew Louth explains the fundamental intuition of sophiology in his characteristically lucid Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology : “the gulf between the uncreated God and the creation, brought into being out of nothing, does not put creation in opposition to God; rather, Wisdom constitutes . . . . Continue Reading »

Israel camps at Kadesh, sends in spies, but ultimately refuses to enter the land (Numbers 13-14). “Kadesh” transliterates qedesh , from qadash , which means “make holy.” Kadesh is not only an oasis in the desert, but a sanctuary. Like Adam, Israel sins in a garden-temple. . . . . Continue Reading »

Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie promoted and even committed violent acts against the Apartheid regime. Earlier this year , I summarized Tom Lodge’s review of Stephen Ellis’s External Mission: The ANC in Exile, 1960-1990 , which maintains that Mandela was part of a small group of . . . . Continue Reading »

The saints who overcome the dragon do so because of the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and because “they did not love their life even to death” (Revelation 12:11). Martyrs don’t care enough about their own lives to preserve them in the face of threats. This is the . . . . Continue Reading »

Advent anticipates the final judgment. It’s a season not only for celebrating Christ’s first Advent but for preparing for His final coming . . . . . 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 »

Modernism was not simply a secularizing movement in art. As Richard Harries shows in his recent The Image of Christ in Modern Art , Christ and Christian themes remained important for visual artists during from the period before World War I to the present. His richly illustrated book focuses on . . . . Continue Reading »

Like everyone in his time, Kant believed in the great chain of being, and like many he extended it to the planets and their inhabitants. The further the planet from the sun, the better; like man, earth was midway. Kant wrote: “The excellence of thinking natures, their quickness of . . . . Continue Reading »