“Intellectuals like Foucault and Derrida are undoubtedly contributors to postmodern thinking, but what is often left unexplained is how we get from Foucault to MTV, from Derrida to the centerless young people whose canopy of meaning in life has collapsed, from Fish and Rorty to our movies.” [David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs (Grand Rapids, …
A Really Creative Judgment
“Indeed, it has led those who are heady with triumph to speak of this moment as being postmodern. It is, to say the least, a galling epithet to those still enamored with Enlightenment beliefs, for, to those who still believe in progress, to be called passé is a thunderclap of judgment more dreadful, it would …
This Should Actually Be “Lokism,” Prejudice Against Norse Trickster Gods
“At Smith College, a brochure is distributed to incoming students rehearsing a long list of politically incorrect attitudes and prejudices that will not be tolerated, including the sin of ‘lookism,’ i.e. the prejudice of believing that some people are more attractive than others” (Tenured Radicals, p. 9).
Keepin’ It Frothy!
“It is a fearful idolatry and the immediate judgment that is being visited upon us is that our culture has become shallow, cheap, and vulgar. And far from challenging this emptiness and futility, evangelical churches have too often been its exemplars . . . pitching their ‘product’ to ‘consumers’ and emptying themselves of every vestige …
Making Sense: Our Secret Weapon
“Mas’d Zavazadeh, a follower of the French deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, put it bluntly when he declared in a review of a rival critic that ‘his unproblematic prose and the clarity of his presentation’ were ‘the conceptual tools of conservatism'” (Tenured Radicals, p. 8).
Fatherless Treachery
A friend sent me a copy of Doug Phillips’ post on honor, which was simply outstanding, and which included a paragraph that was pure gold. Here it is: “In examining Hebrews 12:5-13, I shared my own view that fatherless cultures produce men who do not understand honor, and therefore relate dishonorably to fathers, employers, pastors, …
Oh. That Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick.
“Increasingly, second- and third-tier schools are rushing to embrace all manner of fashionable intellectual ideologies as so many formulas for garnering prestige, publicity, and ‘name’ professors (and hoping thereby to attract more students and other sources of income) without having to distinguish themselves through the less-glamorous and more time-consuming methods of good teaching and lasting …
Funny. The Post-Enlightenment Is Demanding All the Same Stuff.
“The Enlightenment’s centerpiece was freedom. Indeed, its demand was freedom: freedom from the past, freedom from God, and freedom from authority” [David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), p. 29].
Watching One Dragon Eat the Other One
“Modernity itself is in deep crisis, and the postmodern ethos which is sweeping over it is bringing not only some relief to evangelical faith which had been abandoned on the margins by modernity, but also a whole new set of challenges.” [David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), p. 11]
Gaining Tenure Through “Eye of Newt” and “Dried Bat Liver”
“This is where the jargon of deconstruction, poststructuralism, and kindred Continental imports has been a godsend for ‘cutting edge’ academics. It has allowed them to indulge their moralism to the hilt while at the same time appearing to be intellectually sophisticated (or incomprehensible, which is often just as effective).” (Tenured Radicals, p. xvi).