“For the next one hundred fifty years, the West would post the Liebestod question again and again in various ways, from Nazism to Woodstock, and never be able to come up with an answer. In the process, enormous amounts of cultural patrimony were thrown overboard. Classical music, freed from patriarchal melody by Wagner’s chromatic modulations, …
Stay Away From Nonsense
“Those who receive the limits on human reason set by Scripture know that this is not an argument for speaking nonsense, but rather an admonition to us so that migh learn when we need to shut up — so that we might avoid speaking nonsense. ‘Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, …
For Love of the Code
These continue to be tumblesome times here in Moscow, and there is both good news and bad news intermingled. The bad news is that critics continue to multiply, but the good news is that they are getting progressively squeakier. The charges are increasingly crazy-out-there and, with reference to their goals, counterproductive. For an example of …
The Prudent Man Stomps on the Ice
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 86 “The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going” (Prov. 14:15). One of the great lessons to be learned from spam is a reinforcement of what this verse tells us. The most remarkable thing …
Musical Pornography
“To modulate the notes unceasingly from one key to another, as Wagner’s chromaticism did, was tantamount to blunting the emotional focus; to lead them away never to return to the dominant note gave the feeling of tumultuous and unsatisfied passion, a passion that never got resolved. From a human perspective, there was generally only one …
But What About a Really Smart June Bug?
“We may be baffled by all this, but God is the foundation of all reason and order, and the problem does not perplex Him. But a man attempting to determine what the everlasting God may or may not do in history as He inhabits eternity is like a June bug trying to do quantum physics. …
A Girard Jag
As those who read the Easter sermon below can possibly tell, I am currently on a Rene Girard jag. I have read The Scapegoat, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, and am currently halfway through Violence Unveiled by Bailie, a man developing a number of Girard’s central insights. After that, I have a number of …
Christ is in the Participles
One of the standard ways to talk about the difference between a Roman Catholic approach to the Lord’s Supper is to refer to altar versus table. This is helpful, but it can still be misleading. When this happens, the debate reduces to a contest between the Roman Catholic “real presence” and the Zwinglian “real absence.” …
The Holy Spirit Is Not Your Private Satan: Easter 2006
We gladly testify to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was crucified, died, and was buried. He came back from the dead on the third day, raised in the power of the Spirit, and He did so in full accordance with the Scriptures. This we confess, and confess with staggered joy. But …
The Sacraments of Life
This is the our annual celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, an event so important that we also celebrate it weekly. This is the day that the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. We do not just rejoice at the life that Christ entered into. We rejoice because He …