“Here they come,” said Robert. Stephen looked out over the mound of earth in front of him and squinted in the early morning light. A few cavalrymen in bright green jackets cantered out of the woods and into the meadow. They came forward to reconnoiter the ground, and see where the first line of sharpshooters …
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 …
The Tale of the Ribbons
Two months later, in mid-January, Capt. Monroe called Stephen to his quarters. They were in port again, having been out to sea only once for a short jaunt, but to no avail. No prizes, no action, and they then had to return for supplies and water. The same day they tied up, a gentleman from …
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 …
Brown Theonomy
I almost titled this post “Green Theonomy,” but when Ahab brought in the worship of the green god Baal to help out the fertility of Israel, one of the first things that happened was that it did not rain for three years, and Israel turned crispy brown. What is printed up in the prospectus is …
Cafeteria Catholicism
When C.S. Lewis undertook to describe “mere” Christianity, he stated that he had no intention of discussing, for example, the subject of Mary. Few subjects had, in his view, the capacity for derailing the train of Charity than this one did. But he did not just sidestep the question. He noted that for devout Roman …
Macbeth’s Nihilism
“‘It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.’ This is one of the most eloquent nihilistic speeches of all time. Macbeth no longer has anything to live for; time itself is empty, void of hope or regret, merely an objective succession of moments. Macbeth experiences the narrative of …
No Place But The Mall
I promise I won’t blog anything about Brian McLaren on Christmas Day. Apart from that, the only thing to say is that his next chapter is on Methodism, and coincidentally, so is mine! McLaren has a good eye (as all adversaries tend to have) for how belief in objective truth goes to seed. As Chesterton …