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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Honor and Dame

From Leithart

Honor games are competitive, but the competition is always qualified by the mutual need of honor-seekers. Achilles wants to be the hero of the battle, and that means that Diomedes cannot be. But Achilles’s honor exists only in the respectful regard of other heroes like Diomedes. Honor-seekers . . . . Continue Reading »

True religion

From Leithart

In the 2006 article in Past & Present I cited yesterday, Jonathan Sheehan traces the development of the “criterion of interiority” as a standard for judging true religion from false. One of the crucial developments were arguments like those of John Spencer’s 1685 On the Ritual . . . . Continue Reading »

Seed abides

From Leithart

In my commentary on the Johannine epistles ( The Epistles of John Through New Eyes: From Behind the Veil ), I followed many commentators in interpreting the “abiding seed” of 1 John 3:9 as a reference to something within the believer. If we take the sperma as Jesus, then believers are . . . . Continue Reading »

Principalities and Powers

From Leithart

Paul says that the gospel brings to light the mystery that had been hidden in God, and that this revelation of the mystery aims to make the wisdom of God known to “the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies” (Ephesians 3:8-10). Who are these rulers to whom the mystery of the . . . . Continue Reading »

Defining Idolatry Down

From Leithart

In a 2006 article in Past & Present , Jonathan Sheehan examines controversies over idolatry in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Hobbes plays a crucial role in, as Sheehan thinks, radicalizing Calvin’s notion that the human mind is a “manufactory” of idolatry. Following . . . . Continue Reading »

Humanist myths

From Leithart

Thomas Nagel doesn’t much like John Gray’s latest , The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths , an assault on humanism along these lines. Gray rejects the idea that humans are unique, the notion that the mind reflects the order of the world, and the myth of progress. . . . . Continue Reading »

Seven facets of church

From Leithart

Christ is the new creation. In Him, the church is the new creation. To wit: She is light in the world. Day 1. She is the firmanent boundary and mediator between heaven and earth. Day 2. She is the fruitful land in the midst of the sea, the place where land and sea, Jew and Gentile, meet. Day 3. She . . . . Continue Reading »

Outline of Isaiah

From Leithart

David Dorsey ( Literary Structure of the Old Testament, The: A Commentary on Genesis-Malachi ) outlines Isaiah as a sevenfold chiasm: A. Condemnation, pleading, promise of future restoration, 1:1-12:6 B. Oracles to the nations, 13:1-26:21 C. Woes, 27:1-35:10 D. historical narrative, 36:1-39:8 . . . . Continue Reading »