The Relevance of Irrelevance

Chapter 2 of Stellman’s book was also quite good. It is entitled “The Irrelevance of Relevance.” The problems I would have with it are, I suspect, still in the background. But here he says a number of things I agree with wholeheartedly and enthusiastically. He doesn’t quote C.S. Lewis’ great line — “whatever is not …

Church of the Guttering Flame

The first formal chapter of Dual Citizens is really quite good. He begins where all thoughtful discussions of the church’s role in the world should begin, and that is with the question of corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. He has a true Reformed focus on the importance of Word and sacrament (p. 8). He …

From the Church Drinking Fountain

In the Introduction, Stellman argues for a couple of his foundational premises, wanting us to see a clear distinction between worship and life. The basic question he is seeking to answer is this: “What is the relationship between cult and culture, the church and the world?” (p. xviii). Stellman argues that theocracy requires two components …

The Cape and Beanie Make It Worse Somehow

I want to undertake a detailed review of a new book by Jason Stellman, one entitled Dual Citizens. There are a number of reasons for doing this, but those reasons should become increasingly manifest as we go along. The central reason is that I have become settled in my conviction that a particular form of …

A Thousand Amens

Allow me to differ with Michael Horton, then agree with him, and then differ again. I am referring to this article. Here, in the first place, is the key place of difference. “If the church is not to be identified with culture, is it necessarily a counterculture? If Christians as well as non-Christians participate in …

How Many?

Owen Barfield once commented that what C.S. Lewis thought about everything was contained in what he said about anything. Lewis himself pointed to the opposite tendency somewhere when he said that modern men have been trained to have a dozen incompatible ideas bouncing around in their heads. But a Christian world and life view is …

Breathing the Air of Smug Platitudes

Samuel Johnson famously said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. That being the case, accusations of racism (when losing an argument) is the last refuge of the liberal scoundrel. And, as time goes by, and the argument (on health care, say) continues to be lost, the accusation moves closer and closer to …

Triangles Don’t Have Outliers

In a previous thread Jane Dunsworth asked the question when it comes to all questions of “reading culture.” How do you tell the difference between some manifestation of lowlife culture and that same thing (apparently) adopted and carried out by someone whose respectability is beyond question? Hmmm? The problem is the same regardless of how …