“We do not understand that our academic slide has occurred because it had to. We cannot reject the tree and continue to demand the fruit. The universe coheres because Christ is Lord — and there is no alternative center, no other arche on standy in case He fails” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, pp. …
Circling the Drain
“What greatly complicates the quest of those who are attempting to walk a more constructive path which is also postmodern, however, is the fact that in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, there is a gravitational pull toward the death of all worldviews. Not every postmodern thinker moves consistently in these directions but every postmodern thinker …
The Temples Still Standing
“In the ancient pagan world, belief in the gods usually died long before a willingness to dispense with the forms of worship. It is the same here. We no longer believe in the gods of education, but our commitment to their temples is still religious and deep” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, p. 54).
But Not Even Rorty Can Explain the “Left Behind” Movie
“Intellectuals like Foucault and Derrida are undoubtedly contributors to postmodern thinking, but what is often left unexplained is how we get from Foucault to MTV, from Derrida to the centerless young people whose canopy of meaning in life has collapsed, from Fish and Rorty to our movies.” [David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs (Grand Rapids, …
But They Both Have the Same Kind of Hammer
“If two men were building a house together, but they both held tightly to differing sets of blueprints, it would not be to the point to say that they still had much in common. They both own hammers, saws, nails, carpenter’s belts, and so on, and let us say that both of them were of …
A Really Creative Judgment
“Indeed, it has led those who are heady with triumph to speak of this moment as being postmodern. It is, to say the least, a galling epithet to those still enamored with Enlightenment beliefs, for, to those who still believe in progress, to be called passé is a thunderclap of judgment more dreadful, it would …
This Should Actually Be “Lokism,” Prejudice Against Norse Trickster Gods
“At Smith College, a brochure is distributed to incoming students rehearsing a long list of politically incorrect attitudes and prejudices that will not be tolerated, including the sin of ‘lookism,’ i.e. the prejudice of believing that some people are more attractive than others” (Tenured Radicals, p. 9).
Education, the Pseudo Savior
“The answer give to this dilemma goes back at least to Socrates. If man is basically good, then he must do evil things because of ignorance. Therefore the savior for ignorant man must be education. The antidote to ignorance is teaching. But the contrast of Socratic thinking to the Christian faith is striking. In Christian …
Keepin’ It Frothy!
“It is a fearful idolatry and the immediate judgment that is being visited upon us is that our culture has become shallow, cheap, and vulgar. And far from challenging this emptiness and futility, evangelical churches have too often been its exemplars . . . pitching their ‘product’ to ‘consumers’ and emptying themselves of every vestige …
Making Sense: Our Secret Weapon
“Mas’d Zavazadeh, a follower of the French deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, put it bluntly when he declared in a review of a rival critic that ‘his unproblematic prose and the clarity of his presentation’ were ‘the conceptual tools of conservatism'” (Tenured Radicals, p. 8).