In a world gone mad, it can be difficult to keep your bearings. When everyone around you appears to have lost their grip, it is hard to keep believing that the rest of the army is out of step. Athanasius was probably tempted, more than once, while packing his luggage for yet another exile, to mutter, “So off we go again, Mr. Contra Mundum.”
One of the best ways to check whether you have gone mad, or whether the world has, is to cash the whole thing out. What is the agenda? What are the practical ramifications? What is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party trying to get us all to do? The history of theology is full of erudite and fascinating men writing high and lofty words, and in the middle of the book, you find yourself drawn right along. But then you remind yourself that the man is expending all this energy so that at the end of the day you will approve of homosexual marriages, or at the least be less censorious about them. Or that you will make your peace with some other enormity. So look where these people want to drive the car. No peace. No deal. No way.