Peter J. Leithart

Insofar as anything appears to us, it radiates itself. Insofar as it radiates itself, it is light. Insofar as it is light, it is the glory and beauty of God. We need to wear dark glasses all the time so as not to be blinded by the light that blazes from everything. Dark glasses, or eyes as bright . . . . Continue Reading »

Secularization is not for Carl Schmitt, a Weberian disenchantment or “detheologization.” Rather, Agamben says (p. 4), “theology continues to be present and active in an eminent way.” The substance of theology and modernity may not be identical; instead, secularization . . . . Continue Reading »

Agamben ( The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) , p. 2) is surprised that there is so little attention paid to oikonomia by theologians. He thinks he understands: “It is probably that, at least in the case of . . . . Continue Reading »

At the beginning of his 2011 The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) , a sequel to Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) , Girgio Agamben raises the question that, he thinks, students of . . . . Continue Reading »

In his lucid introduction to The Market System: What It Is, How It Works, and What to Make of It , Charles Lindblom notes the divergence of the contemporary market system from the ideals of Adam Smith - “a market system tied to a minimal state.” He notes (p. 8), “In our time it is . . . . Continue Reading »

Here is a brief outline of a presentation I gave today. The suporting evidence is scattered about various posts from the past two weeks. 1) The thesis: It may be true, as free market economists say, that the economy would be more stable and perhaps even more prosperous if the state left the market . . . . Continue Reading »

Gadamer (p. 317) cites this example from Tolstoy to illustrate the difference between the meaning of a great event and the question of whether the great event went according to plan: “Tolstoy’s celebrated description of the council of war before the battle - in which all the strategic . . . . Continue Reading »

In a wonderful section in Truth and Method (Continuum Impacts) about questions, Gadamer says this: “We say that a question has been put wrongly when it does not reach the state of openness but precludes reaching it by retaining false presuppositions. It pretends to an openness and . . . . Continue Reading »

The time gap between the reader and the text seems to be a problem, an obstacle in the way of interpretation. Gadamer (p. 297) rather views it as productive: “Temporal distance is not something that must be overcome. This was, rather, the naive assumption of historicism, namely that we must . . . . Continue Reading »

Modern hermeneutics highlights hermeneutical circles of various sorts: To understand the part you must understand the whole, but to understand the whole you must understand the parts. To understand the author you must understand his times, but to understand the times you must understand the author. . . . . Continue Reading »