There are book reviews and there are book reviews. As I undertake a review of Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy, I believe that it is best for us to be frank. As my son put it in a discussion last night, my review mode is that I have apparently put on the hockey mask and …
Rock and Roll Samurai
“Despite the whirlwind of trends, Details retains a unifying philosophical viewpoint — the archetypical American male is a rebel consumer . . . ‘These guys are not only musicians, or even rock stars,’ the magazine affirmed, ‘but modern men, emblems of a new masculinity.’ These ‘rock and roll samurai live outside the law, but are …
Don’t Sugar Coat It. Just Tell Them.
“The late Joseph Bayly wrote a delightful little book some years ago called The Gospel Blimp, which lampooned the earlier forms of this kind of evangelistic absurdity, back when inane evangelicalism was still slogging it out in the minors. It is hard to imagine what a man of his gifts would do with the embarrassment …
Ethereal Hermit Crabs
“The authoritas verborum is an external and ‘accidental’ authority that falls away in the process of any interpretation, however good. But in considering this we must be careful not to think of a naked, internal essence of a given word, a wordless word, and an outer accidental clothing. It would be better, I think, to …
Ezra Nehemiah 5
Introduction There are two great elements to the task of rebuilding. The first is the nature of the task itself, an overwhelming task. The second is that the task must be undertaken with a handicap—constant opposition. It is not only that you have to drain the swamp, which would be difficult enough, but that you …
Many Thanks to God
“The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles” (Ps. 34:17). I wanted to take a moment and ask all our friends to thank the Lord with us. We just received word that the Attorney General’s office in Boise has dropped the perjury complaint that was filed against me …
The Prosaic Ceiling
Indulge me for a moment. I am working through a volume of poetry by Robert Siegel, The Waters Under the Earth, which I am really enjoying. I would encourage you to do the same. Get it today! Christmas is coming! But in the course of reading him, some unsettled thoughts about poetry that I have …
Business Opportunity
From time to time, we get inquiries from people who are thinking about moving here to Moscow. One of the great concerns about doing this is that pesky detail of making a living. If anyone out there is in this position, I know of a good business opportunity here (a business for sale) that requires …
Theology With the Chambermaid
I am not sure I can do full justice to the questions about Roman Catholicism (from Tim and Kurt), but I will have a whack at it. The distinction between the magisterial doctrine of sola Sciptura and the modern, individualistic solo Scriptura is, in my thinking, straightforward. Solo Scriptura maintains that the Bible is the …
Department of Hip Resources
“The people who staff the Combine aren’t like Nurse Ratched. They aren’t Frank Burns, they aren’t the Church Lady, they aren’t Dean Wormer from Animal House, they are not those repressed old folks in the commercials who want to ban Tropicana Fruit Twisters. They’re hipper than you can ever hope to be because hip is …