So I come to the end of my review, taking the last three chapters together. McLaren is coming in for a landing here, and these three chapters can be managed in one setting. In these last chapters, McLaren explains why he is depressed/yet hopeful, why he is emergent, and why he is unfinished. In case …
The Tale of the Ribbons
Two months later, in mid-January, Capt. Monroe called Stephen to his quarters. They were in port again, having been out to sea only once for a short jaunt, but to no avail. No prizes, no action, and they then had to return for supplies and water. The same day they tied up, a gentleman from …
Multiple Reflections
“In the absence of the old distinction between high and low art, sophistication now involves witty commentary on pop culture. Art has narcissistically turned in upon itself as if there were no reality independent of it. Or better-art reflects life but life itself is now indistinguishable from pop culture. The nihilism underlying such a world …
The Content Is Still There
“Simply presenting the truth of God in a computer printout fashion, without the passion, life, satire, love and emotion found in Scripture, is a way of being unfaithful to that content. Style is far more than the simple decoration of propositions. Style (with satire as an important part of this) should be woven throughout every …
Just Go Home
A little boy with his loyalties intact is one who might think his sister is ugly, but he will not countenance any other boy outside the family saying so. McLaren has this backwards. Whenever outsiders are around, he has a desperate need to put distance between himself and his people, and this is the chapter …
Merry Christmas 2005
Just a few personal notes about a wonderful Christmas. This year, because Christmas fell on the Lord’s Day, we had to spread our normal activities out over a couple days, in order to make room for two worship services within eighteen hours. We normally have a Christmas Eve service, which we did this year, but …
Christmas Sunrise
And the evening and the morning were the eighth day. We should not be surprised at the pattern of darkness and then light, a pattern which we see not only in the creation of the world, but also in the re-creation of all things. And the beginning of the re-creation of all things is what …
Christmas Eve Prayer
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen. Our Father and God, our gracious Lord, we gather before You now as a grateful people. We have been forgiven all our sins against You, and we have been given the gift of forgiving others their sins against us. We thank …
Brown Theonomy
I almost titled this post “Green Theonomy,” but when Ahab brought in the worship of the green god Baal to help out the fertility of Israel, one of the first things that happened was that it did not rain for three years, and Israel turned crispy brown. What is printed up in the prospectus is …
Cafeteria Catholicism
When C.S. Lewis undertook to describe “mere” Christianity, he stated that he had no intention of discussing, for example, the subject of Mary. Few subjects had, in his view, the capacity for derailing the train of Charity than this one did. But he did not just sidestep the question. He noted that for devout Roman …