“But there is no understanding the period of the Reformation in England until we have grasped the fact that the quarrel between the Puritans and the Papists was not primarily a quarrel between rigorism and indulgence, and that, in so far as it was, the rigorism was on the Roman side. On many questions, and …
An Abandoned Battlefield
“If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world as Shelley says, then Christians dare not surrender poetry’s influence on the whole mind to the rock musicians or to avant garde nihilists” (Gene Edward Veith, Reading Between the Lines, p. 97).
When God Has Low Standards
“Should ‘Calvinists’ seek unity of fellowship with Christians who differ with them on this issue? Absolutely. Why? Because election depends upon the good pleasure of the Father. And if he has bestowed His unmerited pleasure upon ‘Arminians’ (which He most certainly does), then it makes no sense for a ‘Calvinist’ to magnify the prerogatives of …
A Forgotten Divorce
“Only after the invention of the printing press were poetry and music separated” (Gene Edward Veith, Reading Between the Lines, p. 79).
Along the Fence
“The Christian faith has a center. When Christians gravitate to the periphery in order to conduct their fights along the fence, it betrays a lack of love for the center, and perhaps reveals a desire to get over the fence entirely” (Mother Kirk, p. 85).
Morals Are Not Always Proper
“Modern Christians should not mistake their post-Victorian sense of propriety for moral purity” (Gene Edward Veith, Reading Between the Lines, p. 38).
Will That Be On the Test?
“‘Ah,’ we say, ‘but our doctrinal hobby horse isn’t in view in Romans 14. The Greek indicates . . . ‘ Whatever the secondary issue we use to harass our brothers may be, we must guard our hearts. ‘But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for …
Holy, not Evil
“Sexuality is for the private intimacy of marriage, not for public eyes. Striptease shows are obscene, not because nudity is wrong but because nudity is private. To pay a woman to take her clothes off in front of crowds of ogling men is to violate her in a very brutal way. Public sex is obscene, …
Some Other Food Group
“We must consequently know our Bibles, because sometimes doctrinal issues of the greatest moment can hang on apparently trivial matters. Paul faced down Peter at Antioch because the gospel was at stake in Peter’s avoidance of certain dinner companions. Other issues are apparently trivial because they are, well, trivial. When forbidden to destroy our brother …
Why Not Both?
“Thus we have a curious dichotomy in the modern literary scene. Whereas the popular culture gives us books that offer entertainment but no ideas, the ‘high culture’ gives us books that offer ideas but no entertainment. There are many books—in my opinion the best books—which manage to do both” (Gene Edward Veith, Reading Between the …