Peter J. Leithart

Bonhoeffer ( Ethics ) sees conscience as a manifestation of the “disunited” man after the fall. Instead of finding knowledge in union with God, conscience draws us to ourselves. We want to know the truth and the good by reference to ourselves as the origin. Conscience “derives the . . . . Continue Reading »

Sacrifices are a “memorial of sin” (Hebrews 10:3). Every morning and evening, Israel’s sins were memorialized before Yahweh, even as they were atoned for. Satan accuses “day and night” (Revelation 12:10). He is the accuser, and at every morning and evening sacrifice, . . . . Continue Reading »

Encouragingly, the Mercersberg revival continues apace. Phillip Ross has recently released a new edition of Nevin’s classic on Eucharistic theology, The True Mystery of The Mystical Presence . Ross has updated Nevin’s language and clarified his obscurities, trying to make Nevin speak in . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaiah 24:1-6 has an intricate structure, much of it with a numerological thrust. In the opening verse, Yahweh devastates the earth in a fourfold act - emptying ( baqaq ), laying it waste ( balaq ), twisting (’ avah ) its face, and scattering ( putz ) its inhabitants. The four verbs reinforce . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 1995 piece in Critical Inquiry , Susan Fraiman defends Austen from the charges directed at her in Edward Said’s famous study of Austen and imperialism. Fraiman doesn’t think Said is a very careful reader: His “rendering of Austen is . . . enabled, I would argue, by . . . . Continue Reading »

Deepak Lal again, criticizing the leftist moralism of the NGOs and the rightwing moralism of neoconservatives: “The attempt to create an international moral order, either by the transnational route advocated by the global salvationists [NGOs] or by the exercise of U.S. imperial power as . . . . Continue Reading »

Social Gospeller Josiah Strong argued for a vigorous US foreign policy, but insisted it had to be carried out on a proper basis. He rejects Machiavelli whose disciples “tell us that the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount have nothing to do with politics, either national or . . . . Continue Reading »

Deepak Lal ( In Praise of Empires: Globalization and Order ) argues that after WW II, the US missed the opportunity to adopt unilateral free trade policies, as Britain did in the 19th century. “Rather than follow the correct British policy of adopting unilateral free trade and then allowing . . . . Continue Reading »

Like all Trinitarian theologians, Jenson is finally ecstatic: “Our enjoyment of God is that we are taken into the triune singing. Perhaps we may say that we are allowed to double the parts. And here too we must insist on concreteness. That the proclamation and prayer of the church regularly . . . . Continue Reading »

In the first volume of his Systematic Theology , Jenson notes that the reason why the church has been “lured” by impassibility is the conviction, which Jenson emphatically affirms” that God is “not subjected to created time’s contingencies” and that no . . . . Continue Reading »