“Ideational art, speaking for its culture, represents a nonvisual world of transcendental realities lying beyond both reason and the senses. Its subjects are spiritual: Almighty God, the Divine Christ, the blessed Madonna, inspired apostles and saints, and, generally, the realm of intangible spiritual values” (B.G. Brander, Staring Into Chaos, p. 269).
Let’s Get Some More Uplift Around Here
“Like all great satirists, Shakespeare must have been besieged with requests for a more uplifting view of mankind. Great mimetic writers are always asked to renounce the very essence of their art, mimetic conflict, in favor of an insipidly optimistic view of human relations, always presented as more gentle and humane, whereas in reality it …
As the Stars for Multitude
An important part of the service of covenant renewal is the recognition of sin, and the confession of it. Moses begins by recalling for the people how they have come to this point. “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel . . .” (Dt. 1:1-18). First, an outline fragment. As we consider …
The Miracle Continues
The Incarnation was a stupendous event, a miracle of miracles. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the foundation of all our hope, rest upon this prior foundation. Christ became a man in order to be able to die. He became a man in order to come back from the dead, leading us all out …
Confessing the Crass
James tells us that fresh water and brackish water should not flow from the same spring. The apostle Paul forbids a particular form of coarse jesting, and says that every word that proceeds from our mouths should be for the edification of the hearer. Our worship this morning is the fresh water. What has the …
Love in the Presence of Others
“An essential part of good teaching is loving the material in these presence of others, whom you also love. If anything less than this is happening in the classroom, the students are being cooked rather than being fed” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, p. 147).
Up to Our Chins in Sensate
“Drawing their data from encyclopedias, histories of art, and museum catalogs, from art journals, scholarly monographs, and other reference sources, the researchers listed art works by the scores of thousands. They classified each item according to its traits, whether ideational, integral, or sensate. Then Sorokin compared changes in the arts to the changes of cultural …
And Narrative Is All the Rage These Days
“MTV’s rock videos tend to be fragmented and surreal, with fast cuts, visual rhythms, and imagery that is striking but does not make a lot of sense. Country videos naturally tend to be narratives, reflecting the storytelling character of the music'” (Gene Edward Veith, Honky-Tonk Gospel, p. 165).
And How Dare They?
“Our mimetic rivals always seem superior to us” (Girard, A Theater of Desire, p. 93).
Pray for Christendom
In 1998, I co-wrote a book with Doug Jones entitled Angels in the Architecture. The subtitle was “A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth,” and at the center of that vision was a robust rejection of modernity. The book begins with the question, “Modernity or medievalism?” (p. 17). To wit: “Medieval Protestantism is not a call …