Peter J. Leithart is President of the Theopolis Institute, Birmingham, Alabama, and an adjunct Senior Fellow at New St. Andrews College. He is author, most recently, of Gratitude: An Intellectual History (Baylor).

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Paganopapism

From Leithart

Peter Harrison argues in his ‘Religion’ and the Religions in the English Enlightenment (9) that the Reformation contributed massively to the development of a new notion of “religion,” especially in the ways Protestants and Catholics redesigned arguments formerly used against . . . . Continue Reading »

Price of Lobster in Boston

From Leithart

Lobster, writes James Surowiecki in The New Yorker , was not always a luxury item. On the contrary: “In Colonial New England, it was a low-class food, in part because it was so abundant: servants, as a condition of their employment, insisted on not being fed lobster more than three times a . . . . Continue Reading »

A Stairway isn’t just a Stairway

From Leithart

In the course of a TNR meditation on the enduring popularity of Alfred Hitchcock, David Thomson comments on Hitchcock’s fascinations: “he loved Mount Rushmore in the moonlight, and a semi-desert prairie with crops where no crops would grow, and all those staircases on which ordeals are . . . . Continue Reading »

Government and innovation

From Leithart

Americans think of ourselves as entrepreneurs, innovators, and self-starters. That description fits plenty of American businessmen, but in the world we inhabit many technological advances that fuel mega-sized companies started in government programs. John Judis makes this point concisely in a . . . . Continue Reading »

Believe it

From Leithart

Thanks to my son Christian, I believe the impossible. I believe in upsalite, the super-absorbent material recently discovered accidentally by researchers at the University of Uppsala. According to the Guardian report : “Unless you work in Uppsala University, Sweden, where accidentally leaving . . . . Continue Reading »

Grave in Moab

From Leithart

Moses died in Moab, on the east side of the Jordan, and was buried there in an unmarked and unknown grave (Deuteronomy 34:5-6). This, Yahweh says, is Moses being “gathered to your people” (Deuteronomy 32:50). Several things are remarkable here: First, that an ancient man should be . . . . Continue Reading »

Brothers

From Leithart

Aaron was the older brother of Moses, and so Moses’ primacy in the relationship between the two continues the regular theme of Genesis: The older shall serve the younger. At the same time, in several specific ways Aaron sets the pattern for the life of Moses. Aaron leads Israel in idolatry at . . . . Continue Reading »