Just a quick thought on the aftermath of the Abramoff scandal. The scandal has, of course, the squeaky clean types bellowing for Reform. And they have the moral high ground currently, and all the sound bytes. But almost no one points out that our current woes are caused by the last round of Reform. When …
The Table and the Ball
Once there was a table, and on the surface of the table there was a ball. For a long time they both just sat there, but one day the ball—who had been taking some philosophy classes at the local community college—spoke to the table. “I don’t know why you think you’re so important,” said the …
Going Around the Calvinist Bend
Check this out. Hilarious. Nowhere near as funny as the emergent one though.
A Heaped Up Book Table
Okay, so off to the right, I threw pretty much everything out onto the book table. There are some new things there as well, which I encourage you to look at. For example, take a look at Evangelical Feast Days, which is on the church year. I did all this because I am making the …
The Root of Affectation
“Sir Henry Savile (one of the scholars who prepared the King James Version of the Bible) read the indictment, almost four centuries ago” ‘Vanity,’ he said, ‘is the sin, and affectation is the punishment: the first may be called the root of self-love, the other the fruit. Vanity is never at its full growth till …
Gotta Serve Somebody
David Wells marks a difference between postmodernism and postmodernity. “As we try to understand our contemporary world, it is necessary, I believe, to distinguish between postmodernism and postmodernity. The former is the intellectual formulation of postmodern ideas on the high end of culture. It is their expression in architecture, in literary theory, philosophy, and so …
Ah, Realism
“Apologists for contemporary television often appeal to its realism–the predictable last line of defense for bankrupt artists.” [Thomas Hibbs, Shows About Nothing, (Dallas, Tx: Spence Publishing Company, 1999), p. 150.]
Relativism As Medicine
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 …
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 …
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 …