Peter J. Leithart

In yesterday’s post about Isaiah 58 , I failed to take into account several other uses of nephesh in the chapter, which are needed to get a full grasp of what the chapter is doing. Nephesh first appears in verse 3, in Israel’s complaint that Yahweh pays no attention to their fasting: . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaiah 58:10 begins with a chiastic clause that centers on the repetition of nephesh : A. If you give B. to the hungry C. your soul C’. and the soul B’. of the afflicted A’. you satiate . . . The text goes on to promise that the light of Israel will rise and become like the . . . . Continue Reading »

Job dismisses Zophar’s comfort with a “with you wisdom will die” (12:2). Job has heard wisdom before, and his ear is attuned to it. His ear tests words “as the palate tests its food” (v. 11). It’s a pregnant analogy. It suggests that hearing is active rather than . . . . Continue Reading »

Shakespeare’s English tetrologies explore the demands and perils of political ceremony . . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m biased, of course, but I think this piece written by my son Smith is lovely. Encourage a teenage composer and take a listen. . . . . Continue Reading »

In the introduction to a collection of Gabriel Marcel’s writings on music ( Music And Philosophy ), the editors note that Marcel prefers aural to visual metaphors to express the experience of being in the world. They quote Marcel: “I am not a spectator who is looking for a world of . . . . Continue Reading »

Roger Scruton ( Understanding Music: Philosophy and Interpretation ) finds Wittgenstein’s effort to link recognition of facial expression with musical understanding useful, but doesn’t think Wittgenstein’s use of the analogy finally satisfying. Scruton writes, “comparison of . . . . Continue Reading »

Steven Pinker ( The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language ) contrasts the English dative with the same form in Kivunjo, spoken in Tanzania: “The English construction is called the dative and is found in sentences like She baked me a brownie and He promised her Arpege, where an . . . . Continue Reading »

When the scribes accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, Jesus answers, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:23, 25). The points seems to be: Even if one accepts, for the sake of . . . . Continue Reading »

Despite the Utopian hypes, Fred Turner points out ( From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism , 2-3) that there is nothing inherently revolutionary or leveling about computer technology. Sure, we all have our own devices, but . . . . Continue Reading »