“Images have a way of evoking an emotional response. Pictures have a way of pushing rational discourse—linear logic—into the background. The chief aim of television is to sell products and entertain audiences. Television seeks emotional gratification. As a visual medium, television programming is designed to be amusing. Substance gives way to sounds and sights. Hard …
Marshmallow Clouds, Puffy Rainbows, and Unicorns
Well, the Obaminator has chosen Joe Biden to be his running mate and, as I see it from here, the wheels continue to come off the Obama campaign. The once robust coalition of marshmallow clouds, puffy rainbows, and unicorns is starting wear a little thin. At least around here. I continue to believe that the …
Beware All Isms Except for Prisms
All strident advocacy of isms gives me the creeping fantods, and that would include capitalism. I don’t believe in “capitalism.” I believe in Jesus. But if someone were to describe my ideal society with regard to economics, there is no doubt that he would be describing a free market, capitalist society — a minarchy. Why …
Mystic Grace of a Saturday Morn
While preparing for a talk in NSA’s grad program, I had occasion to go back and reread Rowan Williams’ lecture entitled “The Body’s Grace.” Doing so I was reminded of the experience of some medieval mystics, and I myself had some small glad participation in the great cloud of unknowing.
Why Essentialism is Essential
“The first major point in our look at the roots of postmodernism is the rejection of essentialism, which takes several forms in different postmodern thinkers. In general, essentialism is the idea that things have real qualities, independent of our knowing them” (Millard Erickson, The Postmodern World, p. 36).
Constantine’s Real Mistake
Just a quick note on Christ and Christendom, and some of our current political snarls. In my political writing, I have made no secret of my yearning for a Christendom 2.0. This means that I believe the conversion of Constantine was a decided improvement over what had been going on before. This does not mean …
One Follows His Reasoning
“If I had to choose an image to sum up our times, I would not choose from among the usual ones, such as the Nuclear Age, the Technological Society, the Age of Anxiety, the Computer Generation, the Affluent Society, or the Space Era. I would call it the Age of Noise” (Michael D. O’Brian, A …
Georgia On My Mind
Since the Russian tanks began to roll into Georgia, I have been mulling it over, reading about it, and wanted to offer just a few cautions. As fun as it might be to have the Russians for enemies again, right back in the psychic spot they occupied my entire childhood, the snarl over there ain’t …
Logos Bible Software
Not counting the first Texas Instruments computer-like thing, the first PC we owned was an IBM XT. It had ten megabytes of memory on the hard drive, and I recall marveling at how roomy that was. Ginormous capacity, and I thought that I would have to type pretty much forever in order fill it up. …
Not Preachy
“On one level these novels [Narnia stories] are tremendous adventures, and on another they are rich theological treatises that teach truth without failing into the tedious habit of preaching to children. The search for truth is simply part of the excitement” (Michael D. O’Brian, A Landscape With Dragons, p. 125).