As one of the supreme Christian epic poems, Dante's Divine Comedy provides not only far more personality and emotional depth than the pagan epics, it also opens up all the issues on which Western history turns truth, beauty, goodness, sin, sanctification, and triumph. For all that, C.S. Lewis loved the Comedy for its seemingly effortless poetry. In this guide Peter Leithart uses a biblical angle to open up the Comedy for students, high school and up. He begins his discussion by examining the meaning and place of the courtly love tradition and then introduces us to the varied levels of meaning throughout the work. In the heart of the guide, Leithart walks us carefully through the craft and symbolism of each progressive stage Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Each section contains helpful study questions."
This book is a Christian introduction to Shakespeare for high school students and includes analysis, questions, and reviw for six of Shakespeare's most meaningful (and enjoyable) plays."Shakespeare was, as Caesar says of Cassius, 'a great observer, ' able to see and depict patterns of events and character. He understood how politics is shaped by the clash of men with various colorings of self-interest and idealism, how violence breeds violence, how fragile human beings create masks and disguises for protection, how schemers do the same for advancement, how love can grow out of hate and hate out of love.Dare anyone say that these insights are irrelevant to living in the real world? For many in an older generation, the Bible and the Collected Shakespeare were the two indispensable books, and thus their sense of life and history was shaped by the best and best-told stories. And they were the wiser for it.This book by theologian Peter Leithart is written for high school students and includes analyses of six of Shakespeare's plays ( Henry V, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Much Ado About Nothing ), as well as numerous review and discussion questions for anyone who wishes to incorporate them into their high school curriculum.
The best stories subtly weave themes and characters and symbols into a stunning final tapestry. In this Canon Press bestseller, Leithart shows that the Bible is the best story.For many Christians, sadly, the Old Testament is merely a jumble of moralistic stories and weird rituals, genealogies, and historical chronicles. What is the point of it all, and what does it have to do with Jesus?In this short and readable book, Leithart gives a sweeping overview of the Bible, its stories, and the patterns and symbols that recur throughout it, highlighting the ways many of the little stories look forward to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Himself.Although the book is lots of fun, the lessons it teaches are far from trivial. The Gospels say again and again Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Christians need to learn to read the Old Testament the way Jesus and the Apostles read it, so that we can delight in the word of God and encounter Him in its stories. This book can be read easily by high school students and includes review questions for anyone who wants to use it in their curriculum. However, it will also give anyone familiar with Scripture much to think about. "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Lk 24:27).
The Lord's Supper is the world in miniature.Within the Lord's Supper we find clues to the meaning of all creation and all history, to the nature of God and the nature of man, to the mystery of the world, which is Christ. It is not confined to the first day, for its power fills seven. Though the table stands at the center, its effects stretch out to the four corners of the earth. This collection includes twenty-eight of theologian Peter Leithart's Eucharistic meditations on the Supper. They are both immensely practical and thick with scriptural themes and interpretation.
Activist Christians tend to assume that, if the church is to be politically influential, her first task is to become more political. National political issues have, as a result, displaced theological and ecclesiastical concerns in the "agenda" and priorities of many churches. As a result, churches, especially those dominated by an activist model of the kingdom, fail to address the world in a distinctively Christian manner-that is, as the church.In his book, The Kingdom and the Power, Peter J. Leithart shows from Scripture that Christians must neither retreat from the world or idolize power and mammon to influence the world but engage the world-as the church. For wherever Christ is present, there is the kingdom. That means the kingdom of God is in the church, the body of Christ.
A Fresh Look at the Doctrine of Christ,Essential for Modern Theological Work Christology was the central doctrine articulated by the early church councils, and it remains the subject of vigorous theological investigation today. The study of the doctrine of Christ is a field of broad ecumenical convergence, inviting theologians from all denominational settings to fruitful collaborative exploration. In the contemporary setting, it is especially crucial for theologians to investigate the scriptural witness afresh, to retrieve classical criteria and categories from the tradition, and to consider the generative pressure of soteriology for Christology proper.The first annual Los Angeles Theology Conference sought to make a positive contribution to contemporary dogmatics in intentional engagement with the Christian tradition. Christology, Ancient and Modern brings together conference proceedings, surveying the field and articulating the sources, norms, and criteria for constructive theological work in Christology.
David Bentley Hart; Mindy Belz; Peter J. Leithart; Shira Telushkin; Joseph Julián González; Peter Turkson; Eleanor Parker; Lyman Stone; Anika T. Prather; Brandon McGinley; Joel Clarkson
In times that feel apocalyptic, where do we place our hope? It's an apocalyptic moment. The grim effects of climate change have left many people in despair. Young people often cite climate fears as a reason they are not having children. Then there’s the threat of nuclear war, again in the cards, which could make climate worries a moot point. The paradoxical answer ancient Judaism gave to such despair was a promise: the promise of doomsday, the “Day of the Lord” when God will visit his people and establish lasting justice and peace. Judgment, according to the Hebrew prophets, will be followed by renewal – for the faithful, and perhaps even for the entire cosmos. Over the centuries since, this hopeful vision of apocalypse has carried many others through moments of crisis and catastrophe. Might it do the same for us?On this theme: creation is transformed and made new.That’s what the “end of the age” meant to Jesus and his early - Peter J. Leithart says when old worlds die, we need something sturdier than the myth of progress. - Brandon McGinley says you can’t protect your kids from tragedy. - Cardinal Peter Turkson points to the spiritual roots of the climate crisis. - David Bentley Hart says disruption, not dogma, is Christianity’s grounds for hope. - Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz reminds us that the Book of Revelation ends well. - Lyman Stone argues that those who claim that having children threatens the environment are wrong. - Eleanor Parker recounts how, amid Viking terror, one Anglo-Saxon bishop held a kingdom together. - Shira Telushkin describes how artist Wassily Kandinsky forged a path from the material to the spiritual. - Anika T. Prather learned to let her children grieve during the pandemic.Also in the issue: - Ukrainian pastor Ivan Rusyn describes ministering in wartime Bucha and Kyiv. - Mindy Belz reports on farmers who held out in Syria despite ISIS. - New poems by winners of the 2022 Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award - A profile of newly sainted Charles de Foucauld - Reviews of Elena Ferrante’s In the Margins, Abigail Favale’s The Genesis of Gender, and Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility - Readers’ forum, comics, and morePlough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.
