So this response should finish up my reactions to Lane’s first critique of the first article in the FV issue of Credenda. And in this last installment, I do have a few things to say, even though I don’t believe there is a great deal of disagreement at this point. On the question of introspection, …
First, Do No Harm
Rob Hadding poses a reasonable question here. My apologies for the techglitch (which we have not been able to solve yet) that keeps Rob from visiting us directly. The short form is that Rob is not sure Wright deserves the “bludgeoning” for those global justice pages that he sees me trying to administer. “Shouldn’t we …
Down Hill
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 137 “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Prov. 22:7). And things fall down when you drop them. This proverb is simply an observation on the way things are. We do not here …
Sin and Sins
The Johannine use of hamartano and hamartia is straightforward. After Jesus had healed the lame man at Bethesda, He told him to go and sin no more (hamartano), lest a worse fate befall him (5:14). He does something similar, but with a very different tone, with the woman caught in the act of adultery (8:11). …
The Light Arrows of Ridicule
“And therefore if I may in any measure redress the evil I will cheerfully bear the criticism of my more sombre brethren. I am deeply in earnest, however playful my remarks may seem to be. These follies may be best shot at by the light arrows of ridicule, and therefore I employ them, not being …
And Eventually These Big Checks Will Bounce
“The culture of Western nations in which humanitarian thinking is dominant is a rentier living off the moral capital accumulated by its predecessors and giving no attention to replenishing it. When it runs out, the horrors begin in earnest . . . Humanism is a philosophy of death” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, pp. 81-82).
A Different Task Entirely
“The early Protestant preachers did not think their message was to get the sick patients to take their medicine. They saw their task as one of preaching in a graveyard, praying for a resurrection” (For Kirk and Covenant, p. 95).
Orders of Magnitude
Lane says that, although I offer some qualifications, when it comes to the history of doctrine, I am essentially a Hegelian. I would take issue with that description — here are the qualifications I gave. “The third issue can be illustrated by adapting something from Hegel’s playbook. His take on history was that a thesis …
Wet Sand
I am preaching a brief series on desire, envy, competition, and ambition. Entitled “Heavier Than Wet Sand,” yesterday was on envy.