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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Not Quite the End of Sacrifice

From Leithart

Christianity brought the “end of sacrifice,” the replacement of the bloody animal sacrifices of paganism and Judaism with the sacrificial feast of the Eucharist. But not quite the end, or at least not quite everywhere. In a 1903 article, Fred Conybeare explored the “survival of . . . . Continue Reading »

Hegel Heretic

From Leithart

Who else but Cyril O’Regan to write the essay on Hegel’s Trinitarian theology in The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity (Oxford Handbooks in Religion) ? As with Schleiermacher, Ja’s and Nein’s are both in order(pp. 257-9). On the plus side (sort of): “Hegel makes the . . . . Continue Reading »

Ja und Nein zu Schleiermacher

From Leithart

Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering have assembled a star-studded collection of contributors for their The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity (Oxford Handbooks in Religion) . The book covers the entire history of Trinitarian thought - from the Old and New Testaments, through patristic and medieval . . . . Continue Reading »

Legend of the White Cowl

From Leithart

“When did destiny become manifest?” asks Ernest Lee Tuveson in his classic Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America’s Millennial Role (Midway Reprint Series) . He answers the earliest formulations of the apocalyptic American millennialism arises in the 1760s, best exemplified by the . . . . Continue Reading »

Sermon notes

From Leithart

INTRODUCTION We want help making a decision, guidance for marriage and child-rearing, instructions about how to overcome sin. In response, God gives us a book full of genealogies, architectural blueprints and procedures for offering sacrifice, narratives of ancient history. The Bible doesn’t . . . . Continue Reading »

Structure of Isaiah 36-37

From Leithart

Isaiah’s account of Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem is organized in a neat chiasm: A. Sennacherib’s invasion and the Rabshakeh’s message, 26:1-22 B. Hezekiah goes to temple, Isaiah prophesies, 37:1-7 A’/C. The Rabshakeh’s boast is repeated in a letter, 37:8-13 . . . . Continue Reading »

Eucharistic meditation

From Leithart

Genesis 2:9; 3:6: Out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food . . . . So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. The word . . . . Continue Reading »

Exhortation

From Leithart

Human life is shot through with envy. Envy whispers in our ear about a neighbor who has slightly more than we do –a nicer car, more recognition, a prettier wife, more accomplished children. Envy wants to silence praise for others and grows angry when praise continues (Nietzsche). Enslaved to . . . . Continue Reading »

As if it were planned

From Leithart

The Cambridge Alumni magazine this month has an interview with Professor Simon Conway Morris hos is proposing what the articles describes as a “radical rewriting” of evolution. His theory is that convergence - “the tendency of very different organisms to evolve similar solutions . . . . Continue Reading »