“The danger in the American church is less that we believe the wrong beliefs than that we believe them all by ourselves” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 91).
Protestant Poetic Sophistication
“The reformers loudly denounced the profusion of allegories and the doctrine of the four senses . . . But the Reformers accepted, and indeed exalted, typological symbolism, endeavoring by more and more rigorous means to distinguish this divinely sanctioned symbolic method from arbitrary allegorizing . . . the new Protestant emphasis is clear: it makes …
But This Is Actually a Good Thing
“If we dump cool, cool will never take us back” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 53).
Seduced by Cool
“Christians are willing to part with large amounts of case for access to Christian cool . . . There’s nothing wrong with Christian music being integrated into the global market. God is glorified by excellence in our craftsmanship. Lots of top-quality Christian music is produced by multinational corporations will be present in heaven. Still, the …
Cool Christianity: Oxymoron #72
“Cool Christianity indulges in a similar feedback loop. Cool Christianity projects a Christian variant of cool that is identical to—but for the most part flies under the radar of—cool’s cultural centers. Accordingly, most cool Christianity is an internal performance for our own consumption. We create it to feel better about ourselves” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are …
Busted
“You don’t wear shades because the future’s so bright. You wear shades because your eyes betray you” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 42).
Corporations Own Cool
“That’s exactly why cool is the advertising El Dorado. Whoever owns cool owns the others. As long as advertisers can convince consumers that certain consumer products contain a coolness that eludes them, advertisers have the upper hand” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 23).
Behind the Painted Scenery
“Real people are never cool; only their projected identities are. Smooth guys far too often have child support to pay. Fine dressers are often broke, party animals look a whole lot better at midnight than at four, and a lot of world-traveling backpackers are really just hiding from their parents” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the …
And Is Catnip for Consumers
“Cool is the most powerful spiritual environment possible for advertisers” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 18).
The Caricatured Puritan
One of the things I like to do is stick up for Puritans. If there is ever a contest for “most misrepresented” groups within the history of Christendom, the Puritans will certainly be in the final four, and would probably win the championship. Caricatured as stuffy, priggish, censorious, prim, prudish and more, the Puritans have …