“[C]ontemporary research reveals that music possesses universal characteristics that mark it as a similar behavior present in all human societies. For example, the principle of ‘octave equivalence’—the treatment of two pitches, one with a frequency twice that of the other, as the same pitch sounding at different octaves—is ‘present in all the world’s music systems,’ …
Tell Us What You Really Think, John
“[T]hose concerning whom I am about to speak insinuate themselves in the name of the gospel so tha by indirect whispers they may alienate whomever they can from Christ. Those people in fact consist partly of hungry vagabonds who, unless you fill their bellies, will bury you under wagonloads of calumnies, partly of worthless and …
Facing the Threat
“Never did men run to quench fire in a city, lest all should be destroyed, with more diligence, than men ought to bestir themselves to quench this in the church. Never did mariners use more speed to stop a leak in a ship, lest all should be drowned, than ministers especially, and all Christian men, …
Police Forces of Modernity
One more comment on Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? The problem with “robust and confessional dogmatism” in a postmodern world is this. There are only a limited number of options here, and all of them but one are variations of what Leithart identifies as “Christianity.” As he uses the word in his book Against Christianity, Christianity …
All Belongs to You
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God of all heaven, Lord over all the earth, we come to worship You now in the kind name of Jesus Christ our Lord. You are the one in whom we live and move and have our being. Not one hair can …
The Next Christendom
As we have said numerous times, we here at Christ Church do not have a political agenda. By this we mean that we do not intend to embrace the idea that the Christian faith is just another player in the marketplace of ideas, and that we need to agitate in various ways to make our …
Haves and Have Nots
When it comes to the Lord’s Supper, the problem of the haves and the have-nots has always been a very pressing one. Recall that in the church at Corinth, there was this problem even with the elements of the Supper itself. But this communion is a time of unity and union, not a time for …
In Praise of Leithart
In my first pass on James K.A. Smith’s Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?, I recognized that he did not want to give way to the full-throttled relativism of postmodernism. He said some promising things early in the book, but, as I mentioned, by the end it was clear that his approach was not going to cut …
Acquiring A Taste
Music is very important to our God, and He requires us to come before Him with congregational music. As we do, we want to take care not to insult Him with false assumptions about what He wants. Beware of a false humility: you may believe you do not have a good voice, and in some …
Your Name On A Place Card
In this fallen world, there are ultimately only two tables—the table of the Lord and the table of demons. This being the case, unbelievers will attempt one of two things—they will overtly choose the table of demons in one form or another, or they will attempt to deny that they must make a choice, and …