Peter Leithart

Last week, Doug Wilson added public Catholic processions to the list of practices that will be prohibited in a Christian Nationalist state. Wilson’s comment reveals blind spots in the Christian Nationalist outlook, at least Wilson’s version of it. First, he apparently envisions a world where Protestants gain political power without Catholic allies. That ain’t gonna happen. It certainly ain’t gonna happen in America. Any Christian-shaped government will depend on contributions from all sorts of Christians. It’s already happened. Where would the anti-abortion cause be without collaboration of Catholics and Evangelicals (and others)? Examine any Christian cause in the past half-century, and you’ll discover the same coalition. Second, Wilson apparently can imagine a world where Protestants dictate policy, but can’t imagine a world where Catholics and Protestants are reconciled as one body. This characterizes Christian Nationalism in general: Vibrant political imagination alongside a shrunken ecclesial imagination. See my essay, along with @douglaswils's response: theopolisinstitute.com/leithart_post/…

@infooverload I think so.

@PLeithart Same Korah?

Korah and his co-conspirators go down alive to Sheol (Num 16:33). His sons survive (Num 26:11), and then - astonishingly - reappear as Psalm composers (Psa 42-49; 84-88). "Will the departed spirits rise and praise You?" (Psa 88, the last Psa of the sons of Korah). The sons of Korah say Yes. P.S. Elkanah, father of Samuel, was a Korahite. Samuel rising from Sheol at Endor - old hat for this family.

I picked it up from a 2005 article by David C Mitchell in the Journal for the Study of the OT. Mitchell also discusses it a bit in his book on the message of the Psalter.

@PLeithart Wow. Can we get an expounded version of this?

The conclusion of our Theopolis Conversation on poetry. A Story Compressed: Poetry, Meaning, and the Trinitarian Surface by: John Higgins (@thebibleisart) theopolisinstitute.com/conversations/…

“In the earlier Middle Ages, the State in our sense of the word hardly existed. There were a vast number of political and social units—feudal fiefs, duchies, counties and baronies, loosely held together by their allegiance to king or Emperor. There were Free Cities and Leagues of Cities, like the Lombard Commune or the Hanseatic League. There were ecclesiastical principalities like the German prince-bishoprics, and the great independent abbeys. Finally there were the religious and military Orders—international organizations which lived their own lives and obeyed their own authorities in whatever country of Europe they might happen to be situated.” -Christopher Dawson

"Babylon has been destroyed by Christ who has restored our every freedom. For he says, ‘Take heart, for I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33). And through him we are daily conquering Babylon within ourselves. But the full and true overthrow of the world will not occur until the end of the ages of this world." -Oecolampadius, quadrigizing like a banshee

The quadriga represents "an ingenious synthesis of all the main strands of patristic hermeneutics to be handed down to the Latin Middle Ages. The attention to be given to the literal sense preserved the grammatical and historical emphases of the Antiochene school; the allegorical sense expressed the typological understanding of the Old Testament and its rich early Christian tradition; the tropological sense allowed for the interests of Jewish and Christian moralists from the rabbis to Philo to Tertullian and Chrysostom; the anagogical sense kept alive the central concern of Alexandrian exegesis for a spiritual reading of Scriptures." -Karlfried Froehlich

A couple thoughts on Matt 12, thanks to @galleddrim. 1) Jesus casts a demon out of a blind and mute demoniac, and people ask, "Is this the son of David?" Why David? Because he drove the evil spirit from Saul. Jesus sings away the demons who've turned Israel's leaders into murderous, David-hunting Sauls. 2) Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days. The Son of Man will be in the belly of the earth (or land). In Jonah, the sea and sea monster symbolize the Gentiles and particularly the Assyrians. Jonah the Israelite prophet gets swallowed and spit back, as Israel will be swallowed in exile and spit back to the land. But the Son of Man goes to the belly of the earth - that's Israel, not the Gentile world. Unless, perhaps, Jesus implies that the land has turned oceanic: The Son of Man gets swallowed by a Gentilized Israel.

@GoodnightCaleb Right. J&Z rebuilt the temple. Should have noted that E&N deal with intermarriage.

@PLeithart Very nice. Curious why you emphasize Joshua and Zerubbabel instead of Ezra and Nehemiah?

Solomon builds the temple, then falls because he marries hundreds of idolatrous wives. Joshua and Zerubbabel rebuild the temple, but they stave off the Solomonic fall by putting away foreign wives.

Today we begin a new podcast series on the Book of Malachi. We begin by looking at the restoration era in which Malachi prophesied. The team discusses topics such as why the so-called "intertestamental period" is actually a misunderstood and vital phase of covenant history, whether the exiles brought idolatry back from Babylon (and why they didn't), and the myth of "400 years of silence" between the Old and New Testaments. This is a rich conversation that sets us up for a serious look into one of the more neglected books of the Old Testament. Listen now: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1T8FNb… Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/user-812874628…

The Leap of Delight by: Bradley Helgerson At the Dissident Dialogues conference in May of 2024, renowned evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins questioned author Ayaan Hirsi Ali about her recent conversion to Christianity. During the discussion Ali admitted, with surprising candor, that her newfound faith is not based on empirical evidence but a conscious choice. Having been deeply moved by the Christian story, she simply decided to believe it. For Dawkins and many modernists like him, such willful belief represents a brazen disregard of epistemic duty, the intellectual equivalent of the unpardonable sin. But is it always “madness” to believe something on insufficient evidence, as the modern maxim dictates? Read more: theopolisinstitute.com/the-leap-of-de…

The tabernacle is built according to the tabnit (pattern) Yahweh showed Moses. David received the tabnit for the temple and passed it to Solomon. John receives tabnit for new covenant temple in Rev 21-22. The tabnit for the second temple? Ezekiel 40-48? Or perhaps the night visions of Zechariah (Zech 1-6)?

The last word of the OT canon, according to the list in most Christian Bibles, is herem: Yahweh will turn the hearts of the fathers to sons and sons to fathers, so He will not smite the land with utter destruction. Turn the page, and you're in Matthew, with John and then Jesus warning of the coming herem.

Neat little tangle in Mal 1:2-3, with the names Esau and Jacob. Both times the names are mentioned, they're right next to each other. The first time, they're in birth order: "Was not a brother Esau to Jacob?" The second time, the order is reversed: "I love Jacob, but Esau I hate." Creates a chiasm: Esau, Jacob / Jacob Esau. And the word order mimics the plot of Gen, Yahweh's overturning of birth order and His elevation of the younger over the elder. What makes the difference? Yahweh's love. Insofar as they're brothers, the order is Esau-Jacob, insofar as they're objects of divine love and hate, Jacob-Esau.

Catholics and Protestants in Christian Nations A short exchange between Peter Leithart (@PLeithart) and Douglas Wilson (@douglaswils) theopolisinstitute.com/leithart_post/…

Christ, in whom we live and move and have being: Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me,  Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,  Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. -St Patrick's Lorica

Scott Thomas urges scholars of international relations to rethink the “Westphalian presumption,” which he defines as the belief that "religious and cultural pluralism cannot be accommodated in a global multicultural international society, and so must be privatized or nationalized if there is going to be domestic or international order." On this presumption, the very possibility of international order depends on a shift in ecclesiology, a privatization and nationalist fracturing of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Is the entire modern political world built on the renunciation of the Nicene Creed?

Jesus isn't so much King as Emperor - King of kings, Lord of lords. Empire is baked into Christology.