“Casualness is proper at times, but the trouble is we have made it a fetish. Whether shopping or going to school or even to church, we take too literally the invitation of the second-class hotel, ‘Come as you are.’ And the sloppier we come, the sloppier we tend to act. A slouch in the body …
No Problem Passages
“By the grace of the Lord, we must resolve to be faithful to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. From Genesis to Revelation, we must not be embarrassed by any passage of Scripture, and once we have submissively ascertained its meaning through careful and patient grammatical, historical and typological, we must seek …
Inescapable Artistic Standards
“Until the artistic impulse is eradicated more thoroughly from human life than has so far been done, even by the best efforts of the metallic civilization of our day, we cannot get rid of the categories of good and bad or high and low in the field of art” (J. Gresham Machen, as quoted in …
Root and Fruit
“We must affirm then that at the deepest level there can be no mature Christian character which despises culture, any more than there can be a truly Christian culture which is not rooted in character” (Richard Taylor, A Return to Christian Culture, p. 17).
Culturally Lost
“We have no idea why we are here, where we are supposed to go, and how we are to conduct ourselves on the way. But in the meantime, our government schools solemnly teach third graders how to use condoms. Countless fathers desert their wives and children. Pastors dishonor their calling through their rampant adulteries. Thieving …
All Reformers Are In Over Their Heads
“We are trying to rebuild the ruins of Jerusalem with opponents taunting us about our (admitted!) inabilities in wall-building. They say that if a fox jumps on our wall, that wall will collapse; we wonder sometimes if it wouild take an animal that big” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, p. 235).
Which Should Be Obvious
“When Christ is the Molder of character we have Christian character; precisely, when Christ is the molder of culture we have Christian culture” (Richard Taylor, A Return to Christian Culture, p. 16).
Art Striving to be a Religion
“Perhaps one of the main problems of art today has been the result of giving art the wrong function. Formerly art was ‘an art’, just as we still speak of arts and crafts. Art as a higher function of mankind, the work of the inspired lofty artist, comparable to that of the poet and the …
Not Short Heathen
“But whenever we talk about religious ‘duty,’ we must be careful lest we get tangled up in the law and gospel business. The promise precedes the law, Paul argues, and is the foundation for it. All duty must arise from the gratitude for redemption, and this includes the duty of educating our covenant children. But …
Boats Don’t Make Water Float
“Here I must say emphatically: art must never be used to show the validity of Christianity. Rather the validity of art should be shown through Christianity” (H.R. Rookmaaker, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, p. 228).