Peter J. Leithart

Let us stipulate that the vineyard is the temple and the bride is Jerusalem.  That clarifies two passages of the Song. “They made me caretaker of the vineyards, but I have not taken care of my own vineyard” (1:6).  True enough; Jerusalem did not care for the temple-vineyard in . . . . Continue Reading »

In Putting on Virtue: The Legacy of the Splendid Vices , Jennifer Herdt explores, among other things, the anxiety about hypocritical virtue in early modern ethical thought.  How can virtue be acquired - “put on” - and still be sincere, authentic?  How can virtue depend on . . . . Continue Reading »

When assessing worries about American empire, some historical perspective is helpful.  Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper reminds us in Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference that “Throughout history, most people have lived in political units that did not pretend . . . . Continue Reading »

If hope is directed to things that we don’t yet see or possess (and it necessarily is, Hebrews 11), how can what we also already possess what we hope for? There are a number of ways to answer that question, but Segundo Galilea puts it nicely in his Spirituality of Hope : “The project of . . . . Continue Reading »

Exploring the Jewish mystical theme of the shiur koma (the body of God), C. R. Morray-Jones writes, “the evidence suggests that the shiur koma tradition was originally concerned with two separate figures: the kavod of God himself, to whom the scriptural throne-theophany verses were applied, . . . . Continue Reading »

Godzich again, explaining that Foucault remained immured in the very hegemonic discourse that he assaulted: “Foucault conceived of himself as the surveyor of these very hegemonic modes of cognition, as someone who would describe their systematicity and their hold.  Though he labeled the . . . . Continue Reading »

In his introduction to Michel de Certeau’s Heterologies: Discourse on the Other (Theory and History of Literature) , Wlad Godzich gives as concise a summary of Levinas as you are likely to find: “Against a notion of the truth as the instrument of a mastery being exercised by the knower . . . . Continue Reading »

“As the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).   As the Scripture says ?  Where? Edmee Kingsmill ( The Song of Songs and the Eros of God: A Study in Biblical Intertextuality (Oxford Theological Monographs) ) suggests the Song of Songs . . . . Continue Reading »

Micah 3:1-3: And I said, Hear now, heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel.  Is it not for you to know justice?  You who hate good and love evil, who tear off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones, and who eat the flesh of my people, strip off their skin from . . . . Continue Reading »

Romans 6:4, 12-13: We have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might walk in newness of life . . . . Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go . . . . Continue Reading »