Let me come clean on something. One of the recent charges made against us is that we here in Moscow are “cultic,” “a cult,” etc. To this charge we have offered our robust denials; we are Trinitarian Chrisians in the Reformed tradition, and we like the Bible. But in denying that we are “a Wilson …
High Capitalism
“It is quite striking, then, to note the parallels between postmodern habits of mind and the realities which have come to mark our highly formed capitalism: volatility, obsolescence, the rapid passing of fashions and ideas, the disappearance of stability, constant innovation, constant revision, repackaging, the new look, the newer than new product, the future always …
Where The Cliché Meets the Road
Watching television news this evening (I know, I know) I have heard yet again the latest cliche de jour. Some Congresslady or other was praising Mayor Nagin of New Orleans to the heights, and one of his spectacular achievements was apparently that he “spoke truth to power.” This was the power to the Northeast, the …
Circling the Drain
“What greatly complicates the quest of those who are attempting to walk a more constructive path which is also postmodern, however, is the fact that in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, there is a gravitational pull toward the death of all worldviews. Not every postmodern thinker moves consistently in these directions but every postmodern thinker …
Wisdom From All Over the Place
We need to let the Super WalMart come to Moscow now. No, not for those low, low prices. We need to head off the violence. Some Dutch pederasts are forming a political party. Gives a whole new meaning to those yard signs saying “Say Yes for the Kids!” I am currently having a fun time …
But Not Even Rorty Can Explain the “Left Behind” Movie
“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).