Marx’s Aeschylus
On Marx reading Aeschylus (in Greek!).
Edward Gibbon and the Decline of the Pre-Christian Empire
On Gibbon and the causes of decline.
“Go, then, and disciple all the gentiles”: Some Reflections on Baptizing Nations
Does the aversion to national baptism stem from democratic sensibilities, or something else?
Thomas Chalmers and the Expulsive Power of a State Church
Conversations among conservative Christians in the United States pertaining to questions of political theology tend to revolve around cultural or social politics and the…
Luther’s Catullus (4): Catullus and Solomon
On Luther, Catullus, and Ecclesiastes.
Upcoming Anniversaries
In the year 324, on September 18 . . . .
“I Contain Multitudes”: The Greek Dylan
“I Contain Multitudes” is the opening track on Bob Dylan’s 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. The title is an allusion to Walt Whitman’s…
Luther’s Catullus (3): Catullus and the Desert Fathers
More on Luther and Catullus 64.
Is Translation Possible?
On translating poetry.
Hierarchy and Separation: Anglican Political Theology in the Early 20th Century
Historically-rooted works on Anglican political theology, particularly political theology of American Anglicans, remain in relatively short supply. Michael Bird and N.T. Wright have published…
Luther’s Catullus (2): “Pre-Protestant” Luther
Did Catullus help Martin Luther formulate the doctrine of justification?
Was the Biblical Canon “Closed” by the Fifth Century?
The role of bishops and councils may be overrated in the evolution of the canon.
Gibbon in a Rousseau Mask?
On history in Rousseau, Gibbon, and Burke.
A.A. Hodge on the Cultural and Social Benefits of Biblical Christianity
In a series of lectures begun at the end of the American Civil War, Hodge offered evidences for what he believed were incontrovertible proofs…
Cold Fusion, Mortgages, and Ancient History
How might a future society look back on us?
The First Time as Tragedy, the Second Time as Farce (and Also Tragedy)
On Edward Gibbond and "defending Democracy."
European Exceptionalism
Thomas Kuhn on the European background of science.
Luther on Aristotle’s Ethics (4): Solomon as “Dr. Politics” (3)
More from Luther on classical political philosophy.
Luther’s Catullus (1): Addendum on Obscenity
More from Luther on obcenity, this time in Roman comedy.
Luther’s Catullus (1): Table Talk 4,4012
Martin Luther on a controversial Roman poet.
Strauss vs. Lewis, Monolithic Societies and Persecution
Just how homogeneous are societies, both ancient and modern?
Post-constitutionalism and the Christian Right to Revolution in Anglican Political Theology, ca 1776
In the Spring of 1776, Anglican priest and academic Richard Watson—then Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge and later the Anglican bishop of Llandaff…
Luther on Aristotle’s Ethics (3): Solomon as “Dr. Politics” (2)
More from Luther on the causes of political order.
Luther on Aristotle’s Ethics (2): Solomon as “Dr. Politics”
Get ready to have some paradigms shattered.
R.L. Dabney on Politics and Christian Moderation, c. 1860
In November 1860 Robert Lewis Dabney addressed the young men of Hampden-Sydney College. The Governor of Virginia called a fast day for 1 November,…
Luther on Aristotle’s Ethics (1)
Martin Luther on Aristotle and Cicero (with a bonus from Ovid for good measure).
Irenaeus and the Static Apostolic Tradition
How do tradition, the Bible, history, and authority all fit together in Irenaeus' model?
Making Rome Great Again
Edward Gibbon on what made Rome a "great nation."
Pseudo-Germanos, Tradition, and the Apparent Insufficiency of Scripture
A medieval appeal to oral tradition.
“Love and Fear”: Another Epigram by Henrik Harder
An epigram on the love and fear of God.
Charles Carroll and the Religious Republic
A new paperback edition of Brad Birzer’s American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll has recently been published by Regnery Gateway. It’s the best…
“Up All Night, Annas Gluts Himself”: Georg Fabricius, Hymns 1.7
Here is the seventh poem in Georg Fabricius’s hymn cycle. Here is a link to the sixth. The meter and rhyme-scheme is the same…
That Time the Church Asked a Pagan Emperor for Help
What are emperors good for, after all?
The Conservative Christian Alliance and the Liberal Revolutions of 1848
Timothy Mason Roberts’ Distant Revolutions: 1848 and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism provides one of the best scholarly treatments of American intellectual, political, and…
Liberalism, the Apocalypse, and Europe’s Doom: John Watson Adams’ “The Crisis,” 1848
Millennial impulses among American Congregationalists and Presbyterians defined Calvinist religiosity throughout the Nineteenth Century. Early Republic divines in North America tended to embrace a…
Happy Alexander the Great Day!
Philip Melanchthon on Alexander the Great, on the anniversary of the latter's death.
Reviewing “Jesus and the Powers”: the Final Post
Is Christian activism part of the larger problem?
“By election… by descent… by the sword”: Francis Vinton and ‘The Christian Idea of Civil Government’
The American Civil War ignited the pens of Protestant clerics, particularly when it came to writing political sermons. Sermons and discourses on war and…
Christianity, The Best Friend to Good Government
Who is the final arbiter for Christian conduct in politics?
Reviewing “Jesus and the Powers”: Part Three
Wright and Bird have actually said something much more ideologically freighted than they themselves appreciate on most pages.
