Peter J. Leithart

In his Symbols: Public and Private (Symbol, Myth & Ritual) (387), Raymond Firth mentions an English case that illustrates the constriction of giving in modern societies: “A record of an English laws case some twenty years ago notes a challenge to a man’s legacy of 1000 pounds to the . . . . Continue Reading »

A friend asked me to clarify some comments I made about capitalism in my First Things piece last Friday. Thinking there may be wider interest in the question, I offer a revised version of my answer to him. As a starting point, let me clarify that the term “capitalism” here refers to the . . . . Continue Reading »

The New York Review of Books review of Daniel Mendelsohn’s Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture (New York Review Collections) , the reviewer summarizes Mendelsohn’s comparison of Avatar and Wizard of Oz . Dorothy awakens at the end, Mendelsohn writes, . . . . Continue Reading »

An essay at the San Francisco Egotist describes technologically-driven changes in advertising. What used to be a process of days or a week is not a process of hours. The shift is not, the author points out, confined to advertising: “Our technology whizzes along at the velocity of a speeding . . . . Continue Reading »

John 1: The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Moses ascended Mount Sinai and entered Yahweh’s cloud, and when he came out his face radiated the glory of the cloud. As Pastor Sumpter has . . . . Continue Reading »

The ark of the covenant is made of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, a cubit and a half high. It’s covered inside and out with pure gold, and has four gold rings at its four feet. The cover is also pure gold, two and a half cubits by one and a half cubits . . . . . . . Continue Reading »

I am filmmaker by trade. 22 years. It’s all I have done. I have been a Christian for 15 of those years. When my wife and I began having children, education became very important. I stumbled onto Doug Wilson and knew we had start a Classical Christian school. Then we stumbled onto James Jordan . . . . Continue Reading »

The gospel is the engine of cultural creativity. But how? “A certain sense of guilt is a corollary of any privilege even when the privilege is deserved,” observes Paul Tournier in Guilt & Grace a Psychological Study (37). He illustrates: “An employee of quality feels it . . . . Continue Reading »

Kant ( Kant: The Metaphysics of Morals (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) ) defines envy penetratingly as “a tendency to perceive with displeasure the good of others, although it detracts in no way from one’s own, and which, when it leads to action (in order to diminish that . . . . Continue Reading »

John is told to measure the temple but not the court (Revelation 11:2). The verb can mean “except” but regularly connotes more than simple exclusion (cf. John 2:15; 9:34-35; 12:31). John is told to “cast out” ( ekbale exothen ) the court to be trampled by the nations. The . . . . Continue Reading »