Tell Us What You Really Think, Martyn

“Lastly, and only lastly, Homiletics. This to me is almost an abomination. There are books bearing such titles as The Craft of Sermon Construction, and The Craft of Sermon Illustration. That is, to me, prostitution. Homiletics just comes in, but no more. What about preaching as such, the act of preaching of which I have …

God’s Iconoclasm

“It was not until 733, when Charles Martel stopped the Moslem advance north of the Pyrenees, that this first great period of Islamic expansion came to an end. In just one hundred years time, the map of the venerable old Mediterranean world had practically been transformed from one vast Christian empire into a vast Islamic …

Sexually Transmitted Dracula

“For instance, Coppola has Van Helsing mention the word syphilis, which is the book’s ultimate taboo, but the whole point of Dracula as monster is that neither Stoker nor Harker can mention syphilis. The monster is, in effect, the sign that neither Stoker nor Harker can bring themselves to face the true cause of their …

Garlanding the Bull

Chapter 7 of Gelernter’s book is on “The Emergence of Modern Americanism,” basically covering the period of the Second World War and the Cold War that followed. As in all his chapters, he is full of interesting and useful information, but he applies it in wildly skewed ways. If Americanism is a religion (and he …

What Happens When You Stop

The apostle Paul exhorts us to do all things “without murmuring or disputing.” The result, he says, will be that we will be blameless and harmless, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, “among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” How do obedient Christians stand out? This is one …