“[Y]ou cannot teach children to appreciate other cultures by teaching (by default) contempt for your own. As I have said before, a man who dearly loves his own mother will understand (fully) why another man regards his mother so highly. But a man who has contempt for his own mother will hardly rise to the …
When Cartharsis Is Not the Main Point
“Irony is not demonstrable, I repeat, and it should not be, otherwise it would disturb the catharsis of those who enjoy the play at the cathartic level only. Irony is anticathartic. Irony is experience in a flash of complicity with the writer at his most subtle, against the larger part of the audience that remains …
Not By Epistemic Works, Lest Any Should Boast
In his essay on “Nietzsche As a Theological Resource,” Westphal says some things about particular and finite knowledge that reveal the heart of confusion in much pomo-friendly writing. He makes the point that knowledge of the Absolute does not bestow absoluteness on that knowledge. In this, he is quite right, as far as it goes. …
Variables
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 96 “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right” (Prov. 16:8). The book of Proverbs frequently makes comparative statements like this one. Everyone who believes that there is such a thing as good knows that this is …
More a Sign of Desperation Than Mastery and Control
“In the blink of a tease you are enticed to stay tuned with promises of exclusive stories and tape, good-looking anchors, helicopters, team coverage, hidden cameras, uniform blazers, and even, yes, better journalism. It is all designed to stop you from using the remote-control button to switch channels. But the teasing doesn’t stop there. During …
Silence Can Err Also
“We also have to tell childre n the history of their people. We must be careful here because we do not have the protections of inspiration. But silence does not really help because we do not have the protection of inspired silence either. We must speak or not speak as fallible persons, and the best …
Far More, Actually
“The whole modern dogma of the absolute separation between great poetry and intelligence is one of the consequences of our blindness to the role of mimetic desire and victimage in great literature. The ultimate implications of Julius Caesar seem almost too dangerous to pursue. Our own rationality cannot teach the founding role of mimetic victimage …
No Debate
Some weeks ago, after I finished reading Guy Waters’ book on the Federal Vision, I contacted him, and offered to work with him to set up some kind of discussion/debate between the two of us. I was willing to fly to Jackson and have our interaction there. Our phone conversations were very cordial, but he …
Whompff!
Want to live real cozy-like? Has the pope apologized or not? If he has, it was quite a feat — hard to apologize to mobs of people making your point more strongly than you ever did. One of the funnier commercials I have seen. I wonder if it ever actually ran anywhere.
Sihon and Og
As we continue through the book of Deuteronomy, it is best not to tire of hearing about giants too quickly. God was giving the land of the giants to the children of God. “Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, …