Peter J. Leithart

Once upon a time, everyone followed a simple, relaxed, guilt-free religion, uncluttered by rites and dogmas. Along came the greedy priests, who complicated and corrupted everything. They added ceremonies and demanded payment for their performance, elaborated precise doctrines, and persecuted deviants, and in all this perverted the God-and-me immediacy of true religion. It’s as predictable as gravity: From the beginning, every religion devolves from primitive purity to decadent ritualism… . Continue Reading »

Does God do all He does to glorify Himself, or for the sake of His creatures? Neither alternative satisfies. If the former, He seems a cosmic narcissist; if the latter, a cosmic therapist. According to Jenson ( America’s Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwards , 39), Jonathan Edwards . . . . Continue Reading »

Over many centuries, one of the standard ways for Christians to integrate ancient into biblical history was a twist on the ancient Euhemerist theory that the gods were originally kings and heroes who were granted divine status at death. In biblical Euhemerism, the heroes are biblical heroes, whose . . . . Continue Reading »

In a sermon on the acceptable sacrifice of Christ ( Sermons and Discourses, 1723-1729 ), Edwards emphasizes that union of Christ with His people is the foundation for Christ’s substitution for His people: “Christ, that gave himself in sacrifice, is so united to them he died for, that it . . . . Continue Reading »

Molly Ball reports at the Atlantic on the “quiet revolution” in Christian views of gays and gay marriage over the past decade. “Congregations across the country increasingly accept, nurture, and even marry their gay brethren,” she writes. “Polls show majorities of . . . . Continue Reading »

“There is no such thing as mechanism,” Edwards argues (quoted in Jenson, America’s Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwards , 25). He means that there is no such thing as “mechanics” if that means “that whereby bodies act each upon other, purely and . . . . Continue Reading »

Discussing the “Antiochene” orientation of Western Christology ( America’s Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwards ), Jenson remarks: “Western thinking perhaps moved more simple-mindedly in the Antiochene track than had the Antiochenes themselves. Thus the brilliant . . . . Continue Reading »

Jenson offers a typically witty and condensed assessment of “natural theology” and its relation to the gospel in his America’s Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwards . The confrontation arises from the basic missionary character of the Christian church. Because it bears . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 2007 lecture , Margaret Jacob describes the series of dominoes whose toppling helped produce the European Enlightenment. The roles of England, France, and the Netherlands are crucial. The Netherlands provided the seedbed because of lax censorship restrictions on any book not in Dutch and its . . . . Continue Reading »

Frank Manuel shows that Euhemerism remains a very live option as an explanation of the origins of religions into the eighteenth century ( The Eighteenth Century Confronts the Gods , ch. III). Isaac Newton took a primarily Euhemerist approach in his Chronology , and Isaac Newton was no idiot. . . . . Continue Reading »