Peter J. Leithart's Blog
January 17, 2025
The Theology of Music
Élisabeth-Paule Labat (1897–1975) was an accomplished pianist and composer when she entered the abbey of Saint-Michel de Kergonan in her early twenties. She devoted her later years to writing theology and an “Essay on the Mystery of Music,” published a decade ago as The Song That I Am, translated by Erik Varden. It’s a brilliant and beautiful essay, but what sets it apart from most explorations of music is its deeply theological character.
December 20, 2024
For Christian Civilization
Paul Kingsnorth’s 2024 Erasmus Lecture, “Against Christian Civilization,” was less a lecture than an exhortation. His target was partly “civilizational Christianity,” represented by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Jordan Peterson, who, Kingsnorth claims, turn the faith into a weapon in the battle to save Western civilization. Preserving Western civilization may, Kingsnorth acknowledges, be a good, but it’s not the same as following and obeying the Lord Jesus.
December 6, 2024
How Advent Broke Philosophy
For Christians, the advent of the Son of God has become commonplace. It’s celebrated, sung, preached about, wondered at, but simultaneously domesticated by nativity scenes, cutesy Advent calendars, and cozy Christmas traditions. It’s easy to forget that Advent cracked the world wide open.
November 22, 2024
Red Menace
Midterm predictions of a Red Wave turned out to be two years premature. Donald Trump will take office in January with the support of a Republican House and a Republican Senate. The margins are thin, but one can accomplish a lot with thin margins.
October 24, 2024
Jane Austen’s Novels Are Darker Than You Think
Jane Austen’s Darkness
by julia yost
wiseblood books, 86 pages, $8
October 11, 2024
One Cheer for Hollywood
Back in the misty recesses of time—2020—the Los Angeles Times announced that newly-elected President Biden would remake the United States in the image and likeness of California. The prospect is a fantasy for progressives, a nightmare for conservatives. And, as Joel Kotkin has detailed in Compact, the California model is a nightmare for many of the state’s residents. While government and government-supported jobs have grown, the private sector has shrunk. Led by politicians funded by Silicon...
September 27, 2024
Can Nations Be Baptized?
Can nations be baptized? Jesus thought so. His last words in Matthew’s Gospel are, “Go therefore and disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you.” So did Paul, for whom the exodus was the baptism of Israel: Our fathers “were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10:2).
September 13, 2024
On the Ground in Ukraine
Sunday morning, June 16, 2024. Two dogs, Molly and Linda, lounge on the covered patio of Nazaret House in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, as I eat a breakfast of fried eggs, ham and cheese, roasted vegetables, and sourdough bread with two pastor friends, one Polish, one Ukrainian. As breakfast winds down, children from the neighborhood’s high-rise apartments start coming through the gate. By the time church begins, twenty or more have gathered at Nazaret for Sunday School. The congregation I preach to...
August 16, 2024
Hagar and Ishmael as Main Characters
A number of scholars say Genesis 16, the story of Hagar and Ishmael, is the center of the Abrahamic narrative (Gen. 12–25). That’s very odd. Hagar appears to be a side character, Sarai’s Egyptian handmaid who bears Abram’s first son, Ishmael. The episode seems tangential to the main plot line. Why should Hagar get a starring role at the heart of the biography of Israel’s founding father?
August 1, 2024
The Black Hole of Sin
The Adversary
by michael crummey
harper, 336 pages, $21.79
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