Malcolm Muggeridge, who knew his totalitarians (and the liberals who loved them) once said, “To laugh is to criticize . . . Humour, that is to say, is a kind of resistance movement, which is sometimes indulgently tolerated, sometimes barely tolerated, and sometimes not tolerated at all.” George Orwell, who also knew something about the …
The Chattering Classes
[Speaking of Carlyle] “The danger, as he saw it, was in the distraction: ordinary men and women turned to ‘art,’ and the worship of art, only when they had nothing more important to do or to think about. And idle humans – bored humans – were not whole humans. They were shells, chattering away to …
Victims and Justice
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when Edmund betrayed his sisters and brother, he did so because he felt that he was the victim. This is how the world of rationalization, revenge, and treachery work. And this, of course, has a profound effect on perceptions of justice. In his book The Scapegoat, Rene …
Worship As the Key to History
We are continuing to address the great theme of Christ’s supremacy over the angels. Here in this passage, His greatness is declared in His work of creating and dissolving all created things, and in His mediatorial reign. And: “You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work …
Still A Deadly Mistake
In September of 2004, N.T. Wright gave an address for a symposium on “Men, Women and the Church.” That talk can be found here. The conference was apparently sponsored by an organization (CBE) dedicated to the egalitarian position on women ministering in the Church, and Wright (who supports the ordination of women) was there to …
The Apologetic for Bad Art
“The first thing we must do is get the smoke out of our eyes. Which is to say that we must start afresh, and concede publicly what most earnest men and women have always conceded privately, that the ancient apology for bad art-“the work is shoddy and disjointed because The Times are shoddy and disjointed”-is …
Brown Theonomy
I almost titled this post “Green Theonomy,” but when Ahab brought in the worship of the green god Baal to help out the fertility of Israel, one of the first things that happened was that it did not rain for three years, and Israel turned crispy brown. What is printed up in the prospectus is …
Cafeteria Catholicism
When C.S. Lewis undertook to describe “mere” Christianity, he stated that he had no intention of discussing, for example, the subject of Mary. Few subjects had, in his view, the capacity for derailing the train of Charity than this one did. But he did not just sidestep the question. He noted that for devout Roman …
That Good Old Narrative Trajectory
On the first page of the next chapter (“Why I Am Biblical”), Brian McLaren states this: “My regard for the Bible is higher than ever” (p. 159). And this about sums the whole problem up. Regard? After having read through the chapter, this is like hearing a divorced couple say they are still the “best …
Trying to Freeze the Linebackers
McLaren goes on to explain in his next chapter why he is a liberal/conservative. In this chapter, his use of these terms is primarily in a theological context, as opposed to the political one. This chapter is an attempt to get beyond “the confining boxes of liberal and conservative” (p. 131). Of course, since conservatives …