“Under our very eyes, the three friends sacralize the violence. The insults and meanness are metamorphosed into the grandiose accomplishments of a supernatural mission . . . Whenever opinion turns against a leader formerly elevated by the people’s favor, the community automatically attributes the change to the intervention of an absolute Justice” (Girard, Job, p. …
Margarine of the Arts
“Based on his study of twenty-one world civilizations—ranging from ancient Rome to imperial China, from Babylon to the Aztecs—Toynbee found that societies in disintegration suffer a kind of ‘schism of the soul.’ They are seldom simply overrun by some other civilization. Rather, they commit a kind of cultural suicide. Disintegrating societies, he says, have several …
The Ancient Respectability of the Accuser
“Words, too, form a crowd; countless, they swirl about the head of the victim, gathering to deliver the coup de grace. The three series of speeches are like volleys of arrows aimed at the enemy of God. The accusations descend on Job like so many adversaries, intent upon the destruction of tyhe some friend. Their …
Grim Victory
“Women are beautiful, and men are necessary. It has been the great victory of the feminist movement to make women unlovely by persuading them that men are not needed” (Anthony Esolen, in Touchstone, December 2006, p. 5).
Postmodernism Much Larger Than Its Theorists
“Modernism, however, is being replaced by the new secular ideology of postmodernism. This new set of assumptions about reality—which goes far beyond mere relativism—is gaining dominance throughout the culture. The average person who believes that there are no absolutes may never have heard of the academic exercise of ‘deconstruction.’ The intellectual establishment may disdain the …
Barely Disguised
“Violence is the true ‘referent’; barely disguised in the threats of the friends and not disguised at all in Job’s laments. Although our two types of discourse seem so different, each deals, in its own way, with the same. They both refer to the process whereby a hero becomes a scapegoat; they both refer to …
Vee Haff Vays
Can’t really figure out why the ACLU would put this up, but it is really worth a hard look. HT: David Field
Ecclesiastical Wanna-Bees
“Every age has had its eager-to-please liberal theologians who have tried to reinterpret Christianity according to the latest intellectual and cultural fashion” (Gene Edward Veith, Postmodern Times, p. xii).
The Uncooperative Victim
“Job is under no illusions. Point-blank, three times in a row, and in the same military order the three friends fire off their sinister and arrogant maledictions. At whom else could they be aimed? Job is not quite yet the enemy of God in question, but he could become God’s enemy and certainly will, if …
A Vat of Heideggerian Goo
Been listening to the latest Mars Hill audio, which you ought to do from time to time yourself. Anyway, on this latest one, Ken Myers interviews James K.A. Smith, whose book on postmodernism I reviewed in detail in my postmodernism thread. Their discussion on Derrida’s infamous “there is nothing outside the text” made me think …