Peter J. Leithart

On the Huffington Post , Christian Sahner provides some background for the current hostility against Christians in the Middle East. He notes, for instance that “Western nations have long showered attention upon Arab Christian communities.” As a result of their role in diplomatic . . . . Continue Reading »

Americans, Hauerwas says, “presume that they have exercised their freedom when the get to choose between a Sony or Pansonic television.” That’s a cleverly subversive thing to say, but things are not quite as easy as Hauerwas makes them. Consumers may, for all I know, often be this . . . . Continue Reading »

Stanley Hauerwas ( War and the American Difference: Theological Reflections on Violence and National Identity ) offers a neat definition for American freedom: It is the modern “attempt to produce a people who believe that they should have no story except the story that they chose when they . . . . Continue Reading »

In her 1999 book, The War Against Population: The Economics and Ideology of World Population Control , Jacqueline Kasun quoted a statement made by USAID Office of Population director Reimert Ravenholt in a 1977 St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview. Ravenholt said that we should aim for sterilization . . . . Continue Reading »

In September of this year, Nick Turse reported on Salon.com that the Obama administration has greatly increased the US military presence in the 97 or so countries that make up what the Bush administration called the “ark of instability.” To be specific: “The United States is now . . . . Continue Reading »

On September 11 this year, Walter Russell Mead reported on the plight of Christians on his blog at the National Interest web site. Mead bemoand the fact that one of the consequences of the US invasion of Iraq has been the rapid decline of non-Muslim residents: “Comprising at least 5% of . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s Jerusalem Post , Caroline Glick ponders the strange disinteret in the rapid expulsion of Christians from the Middle East. She notes, “at the time of Lebanese independence from France in 1946 the majority of Lebanese were Christians. Today less than 30% of Lebanese are . . . . Continue Reading »

INTRODUCTION From the opening chapters of Genesis, the Bible tells the story of two peoples, two cities, which are characterized by radically different desires and aims. They are the dead who never rise (Isaiah 26:14) and the dead-and-risen, who will be reborn from the earth (26:19). THE TEXT . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s a couple of days old, but you can find my reflections on this cutting-edge scientific question at http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2011/10/does-the-sun-rise/peter-j-leithart . And don’t miss the fun discussion that ensued in the comments. . . . . Continue Reading »

About this time each year, I survey my theology students on the question, “Does the sun rise?” Most say, No. This year, one said it’s “super-obvious” that the sun does not rise. They fall into nervous silence when I insist that it does. The occasion for my survey is an annual discussion of Galileo’s famous 1615 letter to the Grand Duchess Christina. During a dinner party with the Grand Duchess, Benedictine friar Benedetto Castelli defended the new heliocentric theory and refuted the Scriptural arguments that another member of the party advanced in favor of geocentricity… . Continue Reading »