Peter J. Leithart

In her essay “On Interpretation,” Susan Sontag argues that interpretation that seeks the “meaning” of a work of art is always destructive. She says, “It is always the case that interpretation of this type indicates dissatisfaction (conscious or unconscious) with the . . . . Continue Reading »

When Daniel appears before Nebuchadnezzar to interpret the dream of the tree, he says this: “break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor” (Daniel 4:27). This is interesting on several levels. First, Daniel isn’t just . . . . Continue Reading »

INTRODUCTION Isaiah 8 ends with Judah stumbling into the darkness of exile. But Isaiah and his “children” have been delivered from the “way of the people” (8:11, 18). For them, light dawns. THE TEXT “Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as . . . . Continue Reading »

In the Bible, holy things and holy places are measured out. Measuring is an act of consecrating, of dividing holy from common. In Ezekiel 47, the water that flows from the temple is measured. That can only mean it is holy water, and not just holy but sanctifying. . . . . Continue Reading »

Jesus is presented as the “metal man” (James Jordan’s phrase) in His first unveiling in Revelation 1. The imperial statue of Daniel 2 is in the background, the statue that reverts from glorified metal back to dust when the kingdom of God hits it in the feet. Jesus is the metal . . . . Continue Reading »

Rowan Williams and others have attempted to blunt the force of Paul’s condemnation of homosexual relations in Romans 1 by working backward through the passage. It becomes clear at the end of the passage that the disorder that Paul condemns is a failure to pursue the love and righteousness . . . . Continue Reading »

So far as I have been able to find, the Westminster Confession never once uses the distinction of law and gospel as many theologians today use it, as a distinction between two “principles” of life. Nor does it introduce this distinction to describe the difference between the Covenant of . . . . Continue Reading »

Why can’t we just close off the border with Mexico? William Cavanaugh suggests a cynical explanation: We don’t want to, because they serve an essential purpose. A porous border does what neither an open border nor a closed border can do. Closed borders would keep out the laborers we . . . . Continue Reading »

Watch the gyrovagi, Benedict says in the first chapter of his Rule . You know the type: “wanderers, who travel about all their lives through divers provinces, and stay for two or three days as guests, first in one monastery, then in another; they are always roving, and never settled, giving . . . . Continue Reading »

Commenting on Isaiah 60:17, Cyril of Alexandria describes the alchemical transformation that Christ brings: “all things are to be transformed to something better in order to distinguish the first [dispensation] from the second. The paideia of the law will certainly end with the paideia of . . . . Continue Reading »