“We do not — at least that class of Englishmen who study literature do not — perform ceremonies gracefully, nor attend them with much enthusiasm, and we doubt whether any ceremony can modify the nature of the act which it accompanies. The Elizabethan sentiment was very different. About ceremonies in the Church there might be …
Well, It Seemed Like a Good Idea
“Individual imagination and fancy will more and more take possession of the technical resources of the new architecture, of its spatial harmonies, of its functional qualities, and will use them as the ground work, or rather framework, of a new beauty which will crown this expected renascence with splendour” (Walter Gropius, The New Architecture and …
Why “Nothing” Is Important
If there is any place where the bone-chilling ugliness of our modern world is both displayed and advanced, it is in the liturgical poverty of the modern evangelical world. And surprisingly, one of the reasons for this is the church’s embarrassment over the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. We have a real problem with this. …
The Mother of the City of Man
“Babylon, the great city, or Babylon the Great. The biggest in the world. No one can rival her, not even Rome. Not because of her historical greatness, but because of what she represents mythically. All the cities in the world are brought together in her, she is the synthesis of them all” (Ellul, The Meaning …
Islamist Foxes and English Hens
“The British government is now in danger of falling into the same trap as the French. After the Muslim riots in France in autumn 2005, the French government, unable to regain control, went in desperation to those who had radicalized the community’s youths in the first place and begged them to restore order. The result …
The Medieval City
“In this, the medieval city was more completely a commonwealth — a full communion and communication of social goods — than any society that has ever existed with the exception of the Greek polis, and it was superior even to the latter, inasmuch as it was not the society of a leisured class supported by …
Psalms as Musical Ballast
“Without a restoration of the psalms to an honored place in worship, our musical worship of the Lord will continue to have the gravitas of a glad bag full of styrofoam packing peanuts” (Mother Kirk, p. 138).
Cold Snakes
“The lusts of men’s hearts are like a bed of snakes in the cold, but the heat of passion warming them causes them to crawl and hiss” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 184).
AlGorithms
I have opened a new category entitled Global Swarming. It has become apparent that this particular form of hysteria over global warming is going to be with us for some months yet, and I would like to say something about it from time to time. The title reflects my conviction that we are ostensibly dealing …
Kind of Makes You Proud
An Oregon man covered 193 miles in a lawn chair, powered by 105 helium balloons. HT: Dale Courtney