Peter J. Leithart

We honor Christian martyrs because they offer the supreme sacrifice for the sake of Jesus. But martyrdom is not for a heroic few. We are all called to be martyrs. The Greek word “martyr” means witness, and we should hear the full legal force of that word. History is a great trial in . . . . Continue Reading »

In her delightful Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia , Suzanne Massie has a wonderful chapter on Peter the Great. She gives a vivid portrait of his 1697 visit to the West, the first time in six hundred years a Tsar had left Russia, and the first visit a Tsar ever made to the West: . . . . Continue Reading »

Luke 12:49-53 begins with Jesus impatient to cast fire to the earth. He wants to kindle the fire that he came to kindle. John the Baptist came to burn the fruitless trees, and said that Jesus is the one with the Spirit and fire. Enough already; let it burn, Jesus says. But then immediately He . . . . Continue Reading »

Thomas wrote, “Being is two-fold: material and immaterial. In material beings, which are limited, each thing is only what it is; this stone is this stone, nothing more. But in immaterial beings, which are vast and, as it were, infinite, not being limited by matter, a thing is not only what it . . . . Continue Reading »

“I know My own and My own know Me,” Jesus the Good Shepherd says (John 10:14). Then He adds, “even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father” (v. 15). There’s a neat symmetry here: “I know My own” matches “the Father knows Me”; Jesus as Good . . . . Continue Reading »

“Glorious things are spoken of you, Zion, city of our God” (Psalm 87:3). What sorts of glories ( nikbadot , from kabad )? Battles won? Cultural achievements? The temple? In Psalm 87, Zion is glorious because Zion is a fruitful mother. Like Proverbs 31, Psalm 87 is a heroic celebration . . . . Continue Reading »

In his brief The Meaning of Tradition , Congar offers some helpful arguments and analogies for understanding the Catholic meaning of Tradition. In its most fundamental sense, Tradition is the thing handed-over, which is to say, the Son Himself handed to the world by the Father: “God (the . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s hard to imagine a more succinct or accurate description of typology than that of Danielou ( Bible and the Liturgy ): “That the realities of the Old Testament are figures of those of the New is one of the principles of biblical theology. This science of the similitudes between the . . . . Continue Reading »

The soul ( nephesh ) is the seat of desire in Scripture. Souls hunger for food, thirst for water, yearn for God like a panting deer in a dry and weary land where there is no water. And, souls long for other souls. “He whom my soul loves” is the Bride’s epithet for her Lover (1:7; . . . . Continue Reading »

A friend, Mike Farley, has assembled and organized the Eucharistic meditations from my blog and made them available here: http://crossroadspresworship.net/meditations-on-the-lords-supper/ . . . . Continue Reading »