“The unthinking fundamentalist wants to reduce the whole problem to a very simple equation — ‘just stick to the Bible.’ His belief is that fooling around with traditions in the first place is what cause the problem. We may call this the ‘tradition as demon’ position. ‘We don’t believe in tradition. We have never believed …
Locating the Source
“The causes of our divisions from ourselves may be covered under three headings: 1. Dividing principles. Sometimes our divisions come down from our heads to our our heart. 2. Dividing distempers. Sometimes they go up from our hearts to our heads. 3. Dividing practices. These come from head and heart; they foment and increase both” …
Some More Demands from Art
A couple films showing this year at Sundance are poised to top the charts . . . that is, if there are charts for which devotees of one-handed magazines are allowed to vote. Mouthbreathers everywhere, beads of earnest sweat on their foreheads, will no doubt blog their early a.m. approbation of this documentary about bestiality. …
Thanks for the Opportunity to Respond
Editor, In your last issue of The Confessional Presbyterian, I read an article by R. Scott Clark entitled “Baptism and the Benefits of Christ.” There are many issues here, but I would like for reasons of space to limit myself to two. The first has to do with Dr. Clark’s straw man representation of the …
Not An Economic Powerhouse
“Later attempts to catch up with the Industrial Revolution fared little better . . . According to a World Bank estimate, the total exports of the Arab world other than fossil fuels amount to less than those of Finland, a country of five million inhabitants” (Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? p. 47).
Metaphors as Means of Sanctification
“Holy living is associated here with writing in metaphors, though the association is only metaphoric, and Taylor is urging his congregation to ‘turn poets of righteousness’ . . . For Taylor, then, writing in metaphors was part of his imitation of Christ” (Daly, p. 184).
The Universal Read
“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty—except, of course, books of information” (C.S. Lewis, Of Other Worlds, p. 15).
The Primal Confession
“After all, the Table of Contents in our Bibles is one of the Church’s first and most important confessional traditions” (Mother Kirk, p. 61).
A Real Challenge
“It is a great part of the skill of the minister to divide the Word aright; but this skill of his will be put to the test when he comes to divide the Word among a divided people, to give every part its portion” (Burroughs, Irenicum, pp. 16-17).
Slept Straight Through Their Thundering Guns
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Too many, Lord, now trouble me, Those who rise against me Multiply. They whisper threats against my soul; There is no help for him in God. I think on my troubles. But You, O Lord, have shielded me; You are my glory, …