“Whereas modern artists assume that the artist, like all human beings, is a unified personality, postmodernists work from the assumption that self-identity is itself an illusion. Modernists, believing the artist is a unique individual, strive for a unique style. Postmodernists work with a collage of different and often recycled and mass-produced styles. Modernists are ‘deep,’ …
Where is the Olive Tree?
“And this is why we remember the words of Irenaeus who said, and said well, that ‘where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church.’ Where is the olive tree? The answer of Scripture is plain: Where there are olives” (Mother Kirk, p. …
Incarnation and Metaphor
“Indeed, the central and defining event in Christianity, the Incarnation of the invisible God in visible man was, like creation and all other metaphor, God’s act of making part of Himself available to the understanding of man . . . In Baxter’s prose, then, we find the theological rationale for the figures that constitute so …
The Hollow People
“Since style, surfaces, and group identity are so important in contemporary life, postmodern society is highly geared towards fashion. The postmodern social scene is preoccupied with what’s ‘in’ and what’s ‘out.’ Being on the cutting edge becomes an obsession. Fashion, of course, must be in a state of constant chance. Otherwise it cannot serve its …
Boast Not Against the Branches
“The church at Rome has many ancient glories, but what does it have the Jerusalem did not have? . . . Now in response to this, Rome would maintain that she is far more than just a particular church in a particular city, that she is not just a branch on the tree, but rather …
Deep Metaphor
“In focusing on the metaphorical nature of the physical world and the metaphorical language of the Bible, Taylor was moving toward an understanding of meditation as a literary, as well as a religious, exercise. And he knew it” (Daly, p. 73).
How the Postmodern Giant Cooked and Ate Itself
“The contemporary academic world is busily deconstructing the human. Modernism took as its project the death of God. David Levin shows how postmodernism takes the next step. Keeping the idea that God is dead, postmodernism has as its project the death of the self” (Gene Edward Veith, Postmodern Times, p. 73).
Another Table of Contents Problem
“Put simply, my challenge contains two questions. Has the Roman Catholic church made infallible pronouncements throughout her history? And may we have an infallible and complete list of them? (Mother Kirk, p. 32).
A Plain Man’s Path
“Though its abuse could lead them from Him, its proper religious use was a ‘plain man’s pathway to heaven.’ It offered the plain poet a world rich in intrinsic symbols, correspondences, and significances that were not decorations but necessary parts of the truth he attempted to tell” (Daly, p. 71).
And Power Corrupts
“These new models tend to be adopted without the demands for rigorous evidence required by traditional scholarship. If Euro-centrism is a fault, one would think Afro-centrism would be similarly narrow-minded. If patriarchy is wrong, why would matriarchy be any better? But these quibbles miss the point of postmodern scholarship. Truth is not the issue. The …