Reshuffling Sacraments

by Peter J. Leithart

The post-Reformation distinction of polity and church was a distinction in varieties of ritual. Continue Reading »

17 Dec 2014

No Sacraments, No Protestantism

by Peter J. Leithart

Many Protestants think Protestantism minimizes the importance of sacrament. I argue the contrary: Protestantism needs a strong sacramental theology to sustain itself. Continue Reading »

14 Nov 2014

Bucer’s Wide Angle

by Peter J. Leithart

The Strasbourg Reformer Marin Bucer advocated a “wide angle” theology of real presence. Continue Reading »

21 Oct 2014

Sacramental Economy

by Peter J. Leithart

Money is something of a mystery. Classical economics views money as a commodity that is selected as a medium of exchange and standard of value, which enables a society to grow from a barter system to a more complex and efficient economy. As Ole Bjerg points out in Making Money, a recent excursion into the philosophy of money, the classical theory leaves some puzzles in its wake. For starters, it doesn’t fit known historical facts. Anthropologists have yet to find a pure barter economy. Media of exchange always seem to be there already. Continue Reading »

26 Sep 2014

Sacramental Permeability

by Peter J. Leithart

Sacraments are not isolated moments in secular world. They are “permeable.” Continue Reading »

19 Jun 2014

Sacramental Rhetoric

by Peter J. Leithart

Donne’s poetry reflects Protestant rhetoricization of sacramental theology. Continue Reading »

3 Jun 2014

Practicing Baptism

by Peter J. Leithart

Bard Eirik Hallesby Norheim summarizes what Practicing Baptismmeans.It is “about letting oneself to be made a receiver, a beggar over and over again (204).It is about renunciation, the call to give up our lives to gain them (205).Baptism is practiced well only if it is practiced as . . . . Continue Reading »

20 Mar 2014