We got a nice note from Molly Worthen, who wrote an article on NSA for The New York Times Magazine. That article is available here. In her note she comments, fairly enough, that the article is critical in places, but that she is hopeful that the article does indicate her interest in and admiration for …
John Mark
As we give ourselves to the study of this Gospel, let us prepare our hearts to hear the words as though they were spoken just yesterday. Just as this Gospel begins with the preparations of John the Baptist; so let us ask God to prepare our hearts in a similar way. Part of this preparation …
The Puritan Defense of Poesy
“The defence of poetry will not be rightly understood unless we keep two facts carefully in mind. In the first place, it is a defence not of poetry as against prose but of fiction as against fact. The word poetry often covered all imaginative writing whether in prose or verse, and even those critics who …
Unappreciated Heroism
“It was in Africa that I first discovered that bourgeois virtues are not only desirable but often heroic” (Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What’s Left of It, p. 25).
Oysters Whistle Out of Tune
“Oysters always whistle out of tune, and we should not be surprised when men cannot accomplish their own salvation. We should not marvel that men cannot restore and reform the Church . . . With our indistinct mutterings, we have ‘preached’ our way into a culture that we deserve. Because we are the problem, we …
Vengeance Is Not Ours
“Practicing revenge is the way to continue divisions to the end of the world” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 270).
The Fox News Jesus or the CNN Jesus?
Okay, here’s a tangled one. Joseph Loconte, writing for The Weekly Standard, takes N.T. Wright to task for his attitude about al-Qa’ida, the war in Iraq, American empire, and all that stuff. What he writes can be found here (HT: Justin Taylor). Loconte does a very fine job in avoiding shrillness in his response — …
Final Assurance
John comes to the conclusion of his short letter in a resounding crescendo of assurance. He does this in the only possible context of biblical assurance, the context of the absolute difference between right and wrong. “This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. …
The Preacher As Steward
“The Christian preacher, therefore is not a prophet. No original revelation is given to him; his task is to expound the revelation which has been given once for all. And however truly he preaches in the power of the Holy Spirit, he is not ‘inspired’ by the Spirit in the sense in which the prophets …
A Real Clash Shaping Up
“Without question, Jesus and Muhammad are the two most influential persons who ever lived. Today we can see the influence in the two largest religions in the world: Christianity with more than two billion followers, and Islam with 1.3 billion” (Mark Gabriel, Jesus and Muhammad, p. vii).