“Life and art are too complex to lay down legalistic rules. But that does not mean that there are no norms. Although one cannot define the wrong kind of seductiveness or the right kind of prettiness and the attractiveness of a woman by the length of her skirt or the depth of the décolleté, nevertheless …
And We Are At Midmorning, At the Latest
“The gospel will be preached in true spiritual authority until the end of the world. The authority of true preaching did not diminish after the apostolic era. The ability to write Scripture diminished — indeed, it ceased when the last apostle died. But the death of the apostles and the closure of the canon of …
Reformational Rap
“The Psalms, which Luther loved so much as peerles barometers of the human heart, leapt out of his translations in sparkling, associative, direct, venacular language, as urgent in their rhythms as rap, his reverent irreverence rediscovering them as the wild poetry and lyrical yearning which they are” (Matheson, The Imaginative World of the Reformation, pp. …
Not Silly Or Shallow
“As art is tied to reality in this way, there is a place to speak about truth in art. Does it do justice to what it represents? Does it do this in a positive way? Does it show the depth and complexity of what it is talking about? Art may be simple; it must be …
The Folly of Preaching
“The foolishness of preaching saved those who believed, and the preaching of the gospel continues to manifest itself as the power of God after conversion. But to those who perish, preaching is always held in contempt; it is foolishness. Those who believe the Scriptures should not be astounded that preaching today is held in such …
Sometimes They Argue
“The Reformers did not dredge Scripture for prooftexts. The Bible’s light and clarity were not so much a doctrinal source or a blueprint for structural change. Rather, when we read their sermons and pamphlets we find biblical personalities and images swimming up to the surface of their minds. An irruption, explosion, eruption of the biblical …
Pietism and Art
“In contrast, from the Middle Ages through the time of the Reformation up to around 1800 when spiritualistic pietism began to drive beauty out of the church (as if one can have inward beauty without the outward signs of it), there may have been simplicity but always beauty in the things Christians did. That was …
High Preaching
“Any reformation of the church depends upon a high view of preaching. But a high view of preaching by itself, apart from a scriptural basis for that high view, will lead only to puffed-up and conceited preachers. Personal bombast and dogmatism are not the need of the hour. But neither do we need preachers who …
Night At the Museum
“The new vogue for dialogue, satire and narrative history gave priority to story-telling, to the via rhetorica over the via dialectica; conversation, intution and empathetic imagination took over from logic, paradox from syllogism, open disputations in the ‘public square’ from magisterial pronouncements behind closed doors. These are not just matters of style and form. They …
It”s Really Fun to Watch Rockers Talk This Way About Themselves
“The role of artists, as well as of the arts themselves, began to change in some European countries during the Renaissance. This movement gained momentum and made a breakthrough in the eighteenth century, the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment. Art became fine art, and the crafts were set aside as something inferior. The artist became …