Peter J. Leithart

In a 1988 VT article, Craig Evans summarizes and assesses the work of WH Brownlee on the parallel structure of Isaiah. The book consists of two volumes, chs. 1-33 and 34-66, and the overall parallels are as follows: “In vol. 1 (1) chs. i-v (ruin and restoration of Judah) parallel chs. . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 1988 article in JSOT , Edgar Conrad points to the two royal narratives of Isaiah (chs. 7, 36-39) as the structural keys to the book. Drawing on his earlier study of “fear not” passages, he summarizes his thesis thus: “The close relationship between these two narratives . . . . Continue Reading »

Edgar Conrad’s monograph on the “fear not” passages of the Old Testament concludes that they “represented stereotypical language used to encourage a warrior before battle.” In Isaiah, there are two such “War Oracles” addressed to kings: Ahaz in chapter 7 . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 1993 essay in JSOT , David Carr summarizes some of the recent work on the unity of Isaiah. In contrast to the scholarship of the last couple of centuries, contemporary scholars are focusing on the signs of compositional and literary unity in the book. He points, for instance, to the very . . . . Continue Reading »

Some ruminations on Sarah Palin, politics, and celebrity at www.firstthings.com. . . . . Continue Reading »

One would have thought that no Republican would be able to drive pundits toward the edge of sanity as deftly as George W. Bush used to, but Sarah Palin has surpassed him. She is as hated by the Left as viscerally as Bill and Hillary were by the Right. She’s the latest in a string of conservative targets: Reagan, Bush, now Palin”all cast successively as rightwing bumpkins du jour… . Continue Reading »

Mead again: “Jefferson’s dispatch to Tripoli and Algiers of a punitive mission against the Barbary pirates was the first but by no means the last such expedition sent out by American presidents. The village of Quallah Battooo on the coast of Sumatra was shelled and burned by an American . . . . Continue Reading »

Mead again ( Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World ): “As early as 1832, the United States sent a fleet to the Falkland Islands to reduce an Argentine garrison that had harassed American shipping. The Mexican War was, of course, the greatest example of . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s remarkable how long Americans had designs on annexing Canada to the United States. Theodore Roosevelt wrote in 1887 that it was a shame that the US hadn’t “insisted even more than we did upon the extension northward of our boundaries.” It would have been better for . . . . Continue Reading »

Mead again: He points out that between the Constitution and the Civil War, American Presidents had far more international and diplomatic experience than during the twentieth century: “of the first nine presidents of the united states, six had previously served as secretary of state, and seven . . . . Continue Reading »