Peter J. Leithart

For the past several decades, Christian activists have been concerned to apply Christian standards to the political and moral issues of our day. I support the effort in principle, and agree with much of the substance. Yet something is missing. In their obsession with discovering biblical standards . . . . Continue Reading »

Exodus 20:23-24: You shall not make other gods besides me, gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. You shall make an altar for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be . . . . Continue Reading »

The Ten Words deal with perennial sins. Idolaters are everywhere all the time. We all hate, lust, envy. Poison of asps is under our lips too. The Ten Words are addressed to us because they are addressed to everyone. But what use are all these detailed commandments? Why do we need to know that God . . . . Continue Reading »

The opening pages of Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology) (pp. 1-9) are a brilliant reflection on theory formation. Pierre Bourdieu examines the “theoretical distortion” that get embedded in social science, especially anthropology, when . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 1993 article in the Intercollegiate Studies Review , Mark Henrie appeals to Alexander Kojeve to argue that “the differences between social democracy and American liberty are not as great as they may at first appear.” Kojeve also, he says, captures something “which has . . . . Continue Reading »

A couple of days ago, I posted a tweet suggesting that the most basic constituents of reality may not be fixed unchanging bits of stuff but sequences of actions, events. (It was more concise when I tweeted it.) Bryan Johnson wrote to say explicitly what I vaguely knew: “your description of . . . . Continue Reading »

Plato worried that writing would spoil memory. He should not have. Jack Goody has found that verbatim memorization only appears in literate societies. As summarized by Ian Morris in 1 1986 Classical Antiquity article, Goody concluded that “It is only when mnemonic devices drawn from writing . . . . Continue Reading »

Perry Hall offers this intriguing analysis of the chiastic relationship between the prophecy of the servant (Isaiah 42) and the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3): A - “This is My Servant; I strengthen Him, this is My Chosen One; I delight in Him (Is.42:1a). B - “I have put My Spirit on . . . . Continue Reading »

Mike Bull responds to my recent posts and tweets on the tabernacle furniture and the faces of the cherubim with a riff of his own, reflecting themes he develops at more length in volume III of his Bible Matrix , which will be entitled The House of God . The remainder of this post is from Mike: . . . . Continue Reading »

John Paul also ( Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body , p. 161 ) notes that Adam reacts to the appearance of Eve with the first expression of joy: “For the first time, the man (male) shows joy and even exultation, for which he had no reason before, due to the lack of a being . . . . Continue Reading »