Chapter seven, “The Tie That Divides,” was informative and quite good. In it Darryl traces the rise of the Protestant ecumenical movement in the mainline denominations, along with the evangelical attempts to counter it, whether by competition or by withdrawal. There is not very much to differ with here, so I won’t try to gin …
Rene Girard and N.T. Wright
Those with a conservative background who start reading Girard are struck by how much he “gives away” with regard to the integrity of the scriptural text. That is fine—we ought to notice it. At the same time, it would be a very great mistake to identify him as some kind of liberal. Once you get …
Gladness or Gloating
I said last week that this was the last of our exhortations on civic affairs, at least for a while, but I was off by one week. There is one other set of comments that needs to be made. First, it would be wrong of us to let this election pass by without giving thanks …
Ordinary Means, Extraordinary Results
We come here to eat and drink. But this is not food from our cupboards at home—this is heavenly food. But it is not heavenly food because there is anything ethereal or magic about the food itself—this is ordinary wine and this is ordinary bread. So how then is it extraordinary? If this is ordinary …
Truth Is Wine
Green Baggins liked my chapter on blessings and curses (in the main), but wanted me to clarify something, which I am happy to do. Incidentally, I was blessed by Lane’s last paragraph, where he summarized my position in a way I would be happy to own. May the Lord hasten the day where we see …
Unsuccessful Bracketing
Throughout the course of this book Darryl says many good things, and makes many fine observations. Unfortunately, they are set in the context of this dualistic background of his, which make the result resemble a collection of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires set in a fitting of tarnished and battered sheet metal. Chapter six on “impersonal …
Like Trees Walking
We find here a passage with great contrasts and comparisons. Peter the Confessor is also Satan, and the blind man who saw men as trees walking provides a good picture of the disciples. “And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him . . .” …
Poetics of Grace
“Similarly, William H. Halewood argues that the pervasive Augustinianism of the period — Augustine as interpreted by the Reformation — led Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Marvell, and Milton to develop a poetic mode exploring man’s radical sinfulness and God’s overpowering grace” (Lewalski, Protestant Poetics, p. 14).
The Only Font of Our Authority
“Granted that only the power of God can make the blind see and the dead live, where is this power to be found? How can preachers become such channels of it as to be ‘servants through whom’ others will believe? There is no clearer exposition in the New Testament of the place of divine power …
Not From the Theory Down
“As a doctor working in a slum area with many immigrant residents, I see multiculturalism from the ground up rather than from the theory down. And it is clear from what I see almost every day that not all cultural values are compatible or can be reconciled by the enunciation of platitudes. The idea that …