Marvin Olasky set off some vigorous discussion over at Worldmagblog by quoting Thomas Sowell, and asking what people thought. Some of it spilled my way, with someone writing and asking what I thought. Here is how Marvin framed the question: “Re. the recent Senate debate on banning torture, Thomas Sowell writes, ‘If a captured terrorist …
Retaining Wealth
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 68 “A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain riches” (Prov. 11:16). One of the strengths of Hebraic parallelism is that it enables us to compare things that we would not ordinarily think to compare. In a kind of …
Ezra Nehemiah 3
Introduction We sometimes take the wrong lesson from St. Paul’s warning about endless genealogies. “Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do” (1 Tim. 1:4). “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable …
Dualism Is Bad
What is the difference between everyday abstractions, propositions, and definitions and then the same things in the hands of the philosophers? The answer is that philosophers tend to fall, somehow, someway, into the error of reification. That is, they try to answer the question of whether “thus and such” exists through some kind of metaphysical …
Real Discernment
“Not only is the fashioning of deity hard physical labor, it takes a good deal of shrewd discernment. It is not just anybody who can look at a log and see which end of it should be used for cooking dinner and which end should become the object of worship and adoration” (A Serrated Edge, …
Reseerch Perfesser
Tom Garfield wrote a letter to the editor setting the record straight on the alleged neo-Confederate nature of Logos School. In that letter he challenged Nick Gier’s great abilities in sitting loose to the facts, and invited him up to Logos School to have a look around for himself. You know, looking around for yourself …
Like Grass on the Roof
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Lord God of Israel, Many times they have tormented me, From my youth they have tormented me. Let Israel say the same thing, Let Israel confess: Many times from my youth they have afflicted me, But they have not prevailed. With their …
The Marks of a Pharisee
The Pharisees are the principal bad guys in the New Testament, and they are caricatured as such by the Lord Jesus Himself. But we frequently miss the spiritual lessons involved because we don’t understand polemical satire and caricature. We look at the portrait Jesus draws and we take it with a wooden literalism, and we …
The Table of Graciousness
This Table, and the Word accompanying it, are means of grace. But grace is not an invisible fluid that juices you up in your devotional life, grace is the word Scripture uses for how God imparts Himself to us. When the gracious God gives Himself, this is grace. And we know that we are receiving …
Living Simply
Much philosophical endeavor is occupied with trying to answer questions that ought never to have been asked. I am reminded of Bill Cosby’s old joke about it. Philosophy majors want to ask questions like “why is there air?” when the PE majors knew the answer already. Air is for blowing up volleyballs. The world is …