“If the desert is the place of demons, the city is the place of idols” (Ellul, The Meaning of the City, p. 54).
The Closing of the Islamic Mind
“Not even a prime location at the crossroads of the world could supply an antidote to the slow poison of Islamic obscurantism. The Ottoman interlude concealed and postponed the latent tension between the view of world history as the fulfillment of Islam and its triumph everywhere on the one hand, and the reality of the …
That, and Singing Through Your Nose
“The truth is that Dylan, like most of his generation, learned most of his folk music from records . . . But to folkies bewitched by the blues, roughness epitomized authenticity” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, p. 212).
Aluminum Discipline
“We must beware of a too great reliance on a systematic reconstruction of the various references to discipline in the New Testament. matthew 18 is not a paint-by-numbers kits, and we should not assume that when we get to ‘stage two’ in a discipline process that we are at the second rung of a metal …
The Knowledge Drunk
“Wine is good when it goes to the heart to cheer it, but when it fumes up into the head it makes it giddy. Knowledge is good when the strength of it gets to the heart to comfort it, there to breed good spirits to strengthen it in the ways of holiness. But when it …
The Faith of Jesus
We now come to a discussion of a showdown between Peter and Paul at Antioch. The confrontation, the reasons for it, and the solution to it, are all filled with instruction for us. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that …
Compared to What?
“The Golden Age of Islam was ‘golden’ only on its own terms” (Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet, p. 199).
Audio Reading of Post
Even At Their Saltiest
“Add the guitar-centeredness of the rest of early rock, and you have a significant shift: away from an emotionally expressive vocalism and toward and athletically aggressive instrumentalism. With hindsight, we can see some rather striking sexual connotations in this shift. The controlled vocalism of genuine blues suggest power, intensity, and energy being harnessed—as opposed to …
Death in the Fine Print
“But when rules and procedures multipy, students of history should see it as the manufacture of rope for possible judicial lynchings. Complexity in law is a friend to lawyers, not a friend to the accused” (Mother Kirk, p. 160).
Smarmy Snakes
“These whispering talebearers have such an art as to cause what they thus speak in secret to sink very deeply into men’s hearts. They profess themselves very sorry for what they tell you, but it is too true, and with a deep sigh they harm their neighbor” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 212).