Peter J. Leithart

Frederiek Depoortere’s Badiou and Theology (Philosophy and Theology) is a challenging, fascinating introduction to Alain Badiou aimed (as the title and series subtly suggest) at theologians.  Badiou is best known to theologians as the atheist-Maoist-Marxist author of Saint Paul: The . . . . Continue Reading »

Nicholas Berdyaev argued that Russian Nihilism was traceable to Orthodoxy: “if could appear only in a soul which was cast in an Orthodox mold.  It was Orthodox asceticism turned inside out, and asceticism without Grace.  At the base of Russian Nihilism, when grasped in its purity . . . . Continue Reading »

The always insightful Anthony Esolen has a superb piece on the First Things page today defending the controversial theses that Shakespeare was “a profoundly Christian playwright” and that he was a rigorous advocate of male chastity, for Shakespeare “as near to an absolute value as . . . . Continue Reading »

Arians use the words of Scripture, Athanasius acknowledges, but they use them only as a cloak and disguise to deceive and seduce.  They are like the devil their father, who used Scriptural language to tempt Eve and attempted to tempt Jesus by quoting Scripture. What’s the difference . . . . Continue Reading »

In a chapter on providence and politics in The Providence of God: Deus Habet Consilium , Charles Mathewes contrasts a modern ” ex nihilo ” view of human action with the view that human action is “responsible,” not only in the sense of moral responsibility but also in the . . . . Continue Reading »

There’s a great deal to like in the work of Nicholas of Cusa, but William Cavanaugh ( The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict ) places him at the beginning of an unfortunate genealogy that develops into the modern conception of religion as a generic . . . . Continue Reading »

Mark Lilla makes little effort to disguise his contempt for the Tea Party movement ( New York Review of Books , May 27).  His contempt is contemptible, and his charges that the Tea Partiers have “anarchist” tendencies and are animated by “anger” are off-base. A few . . . . Continue Reading »

Caitlin Flanagan asks in the June issue of The Atlantic why girls are today looking for “the kind of super-reactionary love stories that would have been perfectly at home during the Eisenhower administration?”  Her answer is that teenage behavior is shaped by “the mores and . . . . Continue Reading »

Everyone who knows Lord Acton knows his most famous claim, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  The context is less well-known.  That sentence appears in a letter, written on April 5, 1887, to Mandell Creighton.  Acton had written a critical . . . . Continue Reading »

INTRODUCTION The Spirit is the “Paraclete,” a Greek word often translated as “comforter.”  But the Spirit doesn’t just soothe us.  When the Comforter comes, He comes to convict (John 16:8-11).  The Spirit is the Spirit of discipline. THE TEXT “These . . . . Continue Reading »