Tim Bayly helpfully uncorks on those Christian leaders who are now seeking to sidle away from centuries of corporate cultural wisdom. Justin Taylor has a link to Al Mohler on the Da Vinci Code. Go, Al. My contribution to this discussion is for Christians to start calling the whole thing Daah Vincheeee. Mark Noll demonstrates …
Serene Self-Confidence
“Marcuse firmly believed that this process was capable of ‘objective’ and ‘rational’ determination. There was no danger, in their view, that the differential assignment of rights would backfire, since they were wholly confident that any rational being, once freed from the dominant group’s indoctrination, would agree with their own values” (The Shadow University, p. 75).
Just Don’t Pray At Them
“The debacle of the golden calf notwithstanding, the bronze laver for ceremonial cleansing was to be supported by twelve metal bulls (1 Kings 7:25). Not only were representations of nature prominent in the Tabernacle and Temple, but representations of supernatural beings, the cherubim, were everywhere—carved on the furnishing, woven into the veil of the Holy …
Historically Temporary, Aye
“Censorship, during this ‘reversal,’ was essential, because ubiquitous, dangerous, and regressive notions were too quickly translated into practice. Indeed, censorship, for Marcuse, must be deeply pervasive, although historically temporary. The result, he promised, would be to restore real freedom, and the words ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ once again could attain their ‘true meaning'” (The Shadow University, …
Kennel-Fed Rebels
“As the much censored cartoonist Garry Trudeau has observed in ‘Doonesbury,’ a government-supported avant-garde is a contradiction in terms. The spectacle of supposedly bohemian, anti-establishment artists quivering with indignation and ranting with hysterical rhetoric at the prospect of not receiving money from the bourgeois establishment they attack in their art is glaringly hypocritical (also deliciously …
Dour Chic
“Christians have been criticized for their ‘puritanical’ suspicion of pleasure and beauty. And yet the most flesh-denying ascetic, flagellating himself in a desert cave, and the most furious, tight-lipped Puritan, smashing stained glass windows and pillorying the playwrights, would be hedonistic voluptuaries compared to the existentialists.” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway …
The Legacy of Marcuse
“Nonetheless, on college campuses the drive for speech codes, for double standards in their application, for the mechanisms of indoctrination in their rationales, and for the disciplinary systems to enforce their strictures, comes from the Left” (Kors and Silvergate, The Shadow University, p. 67).
Let’s Build Ourselves a Program
“As the ongoing problem with illiteracy in the schools continues to plague us, politicians will continue to call for more programs to fight it. Of course, some of us are a bit slow about these things. We thought that schools were supposed to be the program to fight illiteracy” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, …
Reformation Iconoclasm
“Reformation iconoclasm was not, however, anti-art. Rather, the rejection of graven images resulted in a major rechanneling of art” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), p. 59]
Define Kitsch
“There is a type of art known as ‘kitsch.’ In addition to paintings of Elvis on black velvet, this category would include plaster lawn ornaments, vacation souvenirs purchased in ‘tourist traps,’ and ‘cute’ knickknacks on the mantle. Kitsch is art of poor quality, which nevertheless manages to be enormously popular by appealing to some sentiment …