“Specifically, my concern here is with the biblical, Protestant poetics informing a major strain of English seventeenth-century religious lyric: the chief characteristic of that poetics can, I suggest, be clearly discerned, and the history of the literary impact traced with some precision — from the quickening of Donne to the developing theory, to the exhaustion …
Confused Enlightenment
“If there is one thing of which modern man is utterly convinced, it is that he has reached a state of sexual enlightenment . . . Yet, as enlightened as we believe ourselves to be, a golden age of contentment has not dawned—very far from it . . . The sexual revolution has not yielded …
The Siren Call of Weirdness
“A cult mentality is ‘obviously’ exhibited by anyone who does not want to live in the prescribed atomistic and detached way — one who does not want to be just another loose ball bearing rattling around in modernity’s machine. The contemporary standards will beckon with a siren call — any kind of weirdness is accepted …
The Witness
“The third word used in the New Testament for the Christian preacher is the word ‘witness’ . . . Christian preachers are privileged to testify to and for Jesus Christ, defending Him, commending Him, bringing before the court evidence which they must hear and consider before they return their verdict” (John Stott, The Preacher’s Portrait, …
Refined Beastiality
“An attachment to high cultural achievement is thus a necessary but not sufficient condition of civilization . . . The first requirement of civilization is that men should be willing to repress their basest instincts and appetites: failure to do which makes them, on account of their intelligence, far worse than mere beasts” (Theodore Dalrymple, …
Community is not a Hobby
“Community will never arise from groups with ‘special interests,’ whether those interests include ham radio, square dancing, or the five points of Calvinism” (Mother Kirk, p. 223).
Delighted Piety
“From what has been said it will be clear that no one can point to a moment at which poetry began to be Metaphysical nor to a poet who made it so; but of all poets perhaps Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas (1544-90) comes nearest to that position. He was a Huguenot and all his …
The Clichéd Rebel
“The authentic man, in the romantic conception, is he who has cut himself free of all convention, who acknowledges no restriction on the free exercise of his will. This applies as much to morals as to aesthetics: and artistic genius becomes synonymous with waywardness. But a being as dependent on his cultural inheritance as man …
Fun Fun Fun
“A young man, who never really wanted to graduate from high school himself, gets hired as a youth minister. His task is to put together a wild and crazy time down at the church, with perhaps a little inspirational message attached. The driving assumption is that young people today will not tolerate serious instruction and …
What We Declare
“Thus the apostle Paul sets forth what we have called the proclamation, the announcement of what God has done for our reconciliation to Himself. He has refused to impute our sins to us. He has made Christ to be sin for us. This is the ‘gospel’ of which we are heralds. It is the proclamation …