“The artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs . . . But in artists of less force, the thing becomes a pressure, and produces a definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament. Thus, the very great artists are able to be ordinary men—men like Shakespeare or Browning. There are many real tragedies of …
The Problem of the Old Testament
I just finished reading Inspiration and Incarnation by Peter Enns, a book that was, in unequal measures, edifying and frustrating. First, the strengths. Enns does a superb job, on a number of issues, of raising questions that easily frustrate traditional Bible believers. This is because traditional Bible believers want (in the name of inerrancy) a …
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sharia?
“A faction of Islamic leaders in Great Britain waited until about 1 million Muslims had immigrated to or otherwise managed to infiltrate the country. Then they boldly announced the establishment of an Islamic parliament. Britons urged Muslims to call it an association, a foundation, a society—anything but a parliament. But Muslim leaders remain adamant. Their …
Getting It Backwards
“Yet there is still a vast amount of talk about the isolated and uncommunicable spirit of the man of genius; about how he has in him things too deep for expression and too subtle to be subject to general criticism. I say that that is exactly what is not true of the artist. That is …
Applied Catholicity
“Thus Bishop Davenant, in his rules for peace, writes, ‘Those may not be cut off from communion with particular churchces who remain joined to the catholic church'” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 97).
But What About the Crusades?
“The major difference is this: Crusader atrocities contradicted the New Testament whereas Muslim atrocities were in accord with the Koran” (Richardson, Secrets of the Koran, p. 158).
Unworthy of a Weed
“But in substance what I said about the dandelion is exactly what I should say about the sunflower or the sun, or the glory which (as the poet said) is brighter than the sun. The only way to enjoy even a weed is to feel unworthy even of a weed” (G.K. Chesterton as quoted in …
Lining Up with the Premises
“By the same token, what is called Islam but is not Koran-based is pseudo-Islam. Hence violent Christianity is pseudo-Christianity, but oppositely—due to the violent nature of the Koran—moderate Islam is pseudo-Islam” (Richardson, Secrets of the Koran, p. 138).
Now You’re Talking
“I wish we did not have to fritter away on frivolous things, like lectures and literature, the time we might have given to serious, solid and constructive work like cutting out cardboard figures and pasting coloured tinsel upon them” (G.K. Chesterton as quoted in Thomas Peters, The Christian Imagination, p. 10).
Why Some Won’t Learn Anything New
“Many have hidden their eyes from those truths that would have kept them from conformity because they foresaw what said consequences would follow, if their consciences should not suffer them to conform” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 94).