Theology That Bites Back
This morning I posted a review of one chapter of Rachel Miller’s book, and in a ships-passing-in-the-night kind of way, today she also posted a response to Mark Jones’ criticism of how she cited me. Still with me?In my post this morning, I alluded to the fact that she is not a reliable interpreter of my words, but I did not cite any specifics—I ...
Introduction:All right. So if we are to review this book properly, and with a requisite fairness of mind, we need to get one glaring thing addressed at the outset. And that is the fact that this whole thing appears to be personal. I did not know that when I started in on this book review, but I know it now. “A pastor in Idaho ...
“The assumption that advertising is able to increase the sales of goods has just not been proved, and corporations themselves make little effort to track the effectiveness of their ad campaigns. In fact, the most reliable studies don’t show that sales follow ads, but just the opposite; ads follow sales”
Nation of Rebels, p. 207
“So Jesus did not die in order to set an ethical dualism in stone, with God and Satan forever opposed. He spoke of the condemnation of the prince of this world (John 16:7-11); He appeared in order to destroy the devil’s work (1 Jn. 3:8); He died to destroy the devil himself (Heb. 2:14); and He stated that in His death the prince of the world would be driven out (John 12:29-32). As we examine the biblical cosmology, we should keep in mind that we are studying, because of the resurrection, the domain of Christ. Nothing is outside that domain.”
Forgotten Heavens, p. 3
“At some point, somehow, a tremendous cultural shift occurred. Bohemian values—that is, cool—usurped class as the dominant status system in America.”
Nation of Rebels, p. 196
“We must rethink our assumptions about the universe around us. But if we submit to the biblical cosmology, it will not be found necessary to submit to a caricature of it—we are not living in a universe built like a 3-decker London bus, riding on the back of a turtle.”
Forgotten Heavens, p. 1
Introduction: Consider this a small postscript on the ladybug post. Now some may want to say that the reason I review books by Rachel Miller or Aimee Byrd in the way I do is because I am threatened by women who write on anything other than quilting or scampi recipes. Now this would be a …
Letter to the Editor: Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr you planning on another No Quarter November? Aye or No? Todd -- Doug responds: Todd, that would be an aye.Letter to the Editor: Mark Jones did a less entertaining but no less serious review of this book's weaknesses and the subtle dishonesties in its presentation ...
“Cool is one of the major factors driving the modern economy. Cool has become the central ideology of consumer capitalism . . . Malcolm Gladwell enumerated what he took to be the three cardinal rules of cool. First, the quicker the chase, the quicker the flight. That is, as soon as we thing we’ve discovered cool, it slips away. Second, cool can’t be manufactured out of thin air. While companies may be able to intervene in the cycle of cool, they cannot initiate it themselves. When we add to these the last rule—that you have to be cool to know cool—cool becomes a closed loop, a hermetic circle in which not only is it impossible to either make or catch cool, but it is impossible to know what it is. Unless, that is, one is already cool, in which case you have no reason to look for it in the first place”
Nation of Rebels, pp. 188-189
