“It took Nietzsche to philosophize out of Wagner’s music a program for cultural revolution that would shake the coming age to its foundation. The twentieth century was to become the proving ground for Nietzschean philosophy in its various permutations. There were the Nazis, and then there was the global cultural revolution of 1968-1969, and then …
Every Tuft of Grass
“God knows every bird of the mountains [Ps. 50:10-11]. His knowledge of the universe is much more than a grand, broad knowledge — it extends down to minute particulars. God knows far more than the correct number of galaxies; He knows all the movements of the mockingbird in your backyard–every dive, every step, every movement, …
Can’t Even See the Tablecloth
The eating of this meal is annexed to a great promise made by Jesus Christ. He says that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, we have no life in us. Conversely, if we partake, then Jesus Christ promises to raise us up at the last day. “This …
The Glory of Repetition
Remember the glory of routine. The sun comes up every morning, and when it did so this morning, it did not come up tired and listless, muttering something about six thousand years of this. The thing which keeps us from exulting in repetitive actions is simply this – sin. We are called to a life …
Ezra Nehemiah 18
Introduction: Returning to the book of Nehemiah, we find the city walls built, but the city within is still not populated, and is still not prosperous. Building a city involves more than building the infrastructure, and repentance brings gladness together with the sorrow. The Text: Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, …
Mark the Music
“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 …