“But not all languages are equally musical. The musical-poetical language Rousseau discusses arose in the south, where the bountifulness of the climate made survival relatively easy. As a result, southern languages express the yearnings of the ‘heart,’ specifically the longing for romantic attachment to a person of the opposite sex” [Carson Holloway, All Shook Up: …
Why Some Listen
“Besides, since it is not at all fitting for us to be upset every time our doing well brings bad reports to our ears, so it is only those who are troubled by their own guilt who show themselves unduly credulous by listening to whispers and false accusations” (Calvin, Concerning Scandals, p. 90).
Ratcheting It Up
“There are some acts whereby men have accession to the raising and heightening of division, and oftentimes they are mutual: As . . . some men’s doing of some inconsiderate act, or writing some inconsiderate expresssion upon the one hand, and other too passionately and vehemently exaggerating such a fact, and condemning such an expression …
Calvin Got Around Some
“Besides, men like that are afflicted by an almost incurable disease. For although it makes them feel ashamed not to know something, yet they cannot bear to learn anything” (John Calvin, Concerning Scandal, p. 25).
Theological Rabies
“So that, that sweet and moderate Melancthon, usually called the differences of divines rabies Theologorum, and at his death blessed himself, that among other sins and miseries he was to be free from this rabies or fury of divines . . .” (Durham, p. 243).
Vain Janglings
“I say, rightly ordered and managed, for often the pretext of Christian fellowship is abused to the hatching and propagating of the most absurd opinions, when people turn light and frothy, taking up their time with vain janglings, and diverting from the main scope, to wit, edification” (Durham, p. 215).
Another Corollary of Unity
“For seeing the church is one city, and one lump, a little fire may hazard all, and a little leaven corrupt all, and unwatchfulness at one part, or post, may let in enemies to destroy all” (Durham, p. 166).
One or the Other
“Teachers of the truth, and corrupt teachers, cannot both together have people’s affection, and no teacher readily will have weight, if he have not affection from his hearers” (Durham, p. 151).
The Giraffe’s Head
“Every Christian school must adopt an implicit, absolute, childlike wonder at the glory of the Scriptures. We must be people of the Book, knowing it top to bottom, front to back. And we must resolve, before the fact, to have absolutely no problem with any passage of Scripture once the meaning of that passage has …
The Answer to Idolatry
“One might say that irreverence, not blasphemy, is the ultimate answer to idolatry, which is why most cultures have established means by which irreverence may be expressed — in the theater, in jokes, in song, in political rhetoric, even in holidays” [Neil Postman, Technopoly (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), p. 167].