Peter J. Leithart

Summarizing a central argument of his Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat told Ken Myers in a recent interview, “A lot of the most influential theologies in American life today are theologies that take various worldly ends as their primary end.” Prosperity preachers turn seven-figure incomes and slick cars into sacramental marks of God’s favor. Oprah religion reduces God to a guarantor of “personal psychological well-being.” Nationalisms of the left and the right invoke God to sanctify policy agendas… . Continue Reading »

The Lover calls his bride his “darling” (Song of Songs 1:9, NASB). The Hebrew is ra’yah , and this is the first use of the word. Of the 10 uses in the Hebrew Bible, nine are in the Song and always the Lover’s term of endearment for his Beloved (1:15; 2:2, 10, 13; 4:1, 7; . . . . Continue Reading »

Solomon’s first wife was an Egyptian princess (1 Kings 3:1). She was Solomon’s mare among the chariots of Egypt (Song of Songs 1:9). We can imagine Pharaoh showing Solomon around the capital, displaying his court and his stables and gathering his army to make an impressive military . . . . Continue Reading »

In his first speech of praise to his Beloved, the Lover of the Song compares her to “my mare among Pharaoh’s chariots” (Song of Songs 1:9). Among other things, the comparison evokes the story of the exodus, where Pharaoh’s horses and chariots are overthrown. Griffiths ( Song . . . . Continue Reading »

In his superb commentary on the Vulgate of the Song of Songs ( Song of Songs (Brazo’s Theological Commentary on the Bible) , p. 28), Paul Griffiths asks what Solomon means by talking about grazing among the lilies. He answers: “This, in the Song, is something the lover is said by his . . . . Continue Reading »

Medieval Christian thinkers were sometimes aware of the tensions between Aristotle’s ideal of magnanimity and Christian virtues like humility. According to Tobias Hoffmann’s essay in Virtue Ethics in the Middle Ages: Commentaries on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, 1200-1500 . . . . Continue Reading »

In his Political Authority and Obligation in Aristotle (Oxford Aristotle Studies) , p. 173, Andres Rosler questions whether gratitude for the benefits of socialization are enough to obligate someone to obey the regime in which he was socialized. Is gratitude sufficient basis for political . . . . Continue Reading »

In his Habermas and Theology , Nick Adams sums up Habermas’s project as an effort to answer this question: “how can there be moral debate between members of different traditions?” Habermas’s answer, Adamss says, is “simple in conception”: “Habermas argues . . . . Continue Reading »

I summed up Gadamer’s discussion of beauty and light a few days ago, but here is Gadamer himself speaking to the subject ( Truth and Method (Continuum Impacts) , pp. 482-7). Following Aristotle and Aquinas, he argues that “‘Radiance’ . . . is not only one of the qualities of . . . . Continue Reading »

Language is a prison-house to much post-structuralist theory. Not to Gadamer. I suspect that this is related to the fact that he is comfortable with finitude. Language seems a prison-house only to those who still long for some way to escape creaturliness. Language is a prison-house only for . . . . Continue Reading »