“It is undeniable that modern liberal regimes have had tremendous success in providing security and prosperity for their citizens. Nevertheless, few of even their most ardent proponents would dare to assert that the political life of such regimes is noble or beautiful. It is harsh, but by no means unfair, to say with Richard Hooker …
Faith Is No Supplement
[Speaking of Anselm] “This glad acceptance of the complete authority of Christ is one of the most striking things about the intellectual life of the medieval period. Faith was not added on to the life of the mind; it was the only possible foundation for the life of the mind” (The Case for Classical Christian …
How Adam Ate the First Orange
“[C]ontemporary research reveals that music possesses universal characteristics that mark it as a similar behavior present in all human societies. For example, the principle of ‘octave equivalence’—the treatment of two pitches, one with a frequency twice that of the other, as the same pitch sounding at different octaves—is ‘present in all the world’s music systems,’ …
Greek Branches, Hebrew Roots
“But we have to remember the apostle Paul’s analogy of the olive tree. Jewish branches were cut out of the olive tree because of their unbelief, and Gentile branches were grafted in. This engrafting of the Greeks altered the taste of the olives, but the root remained — an ancient covenant with Abraham, the root …
Come On Baby, Light My Fire
“Nietzsche, in contrast, recommended a music that inflames the passions, and he seeks to use such music with a view to overwhelming or silencing reason . . . In sum, for Nietzsche, when we experience the Apollonian we behold images, but when we experience the Dionysian—that is, when we experience music—we feel forces” [Carson Holloway, …
Jesus, Nazareth Synagogue High, Class of 0014
“Education reform cannot occur apart from a love of particular things — children, towns, books, subjects, music, and on and on, to the end of one’s life and into the next. Why? God has given us salvation through Christ, who took on His incarnate form during the reign of Caesar Augustus. He grew up in …
Yet Another Reason to Be Concerned About Global Warming
“But not all languages are equally musical. The musical-poetical language Rousseau discusses arose in the south, where the bountifulness of the climate made survival relatively easy. As a result, southern languages express the yearnings of the ‘heart,’ specifically the longing for romantic attachment to a person of the opposite sex” [Carson Holloway, All Shook Up: …
Superficial Education Reform
“Consequently, many Christians involved in modern Christian education need to adopt a more comprehensive vision for education. A Christian education is not a process that dabbles around the edges or tires to improve something in need of radical reformation through a simple rearrangement. We may have seen a stsudent who has a basic problem — …
A Significant Omission
“It is not much of an exaggeration to say that music, as an issue of political consequence, vanishes in the political philosophy of early modernity. The intellectual architects of modern liberalism do not acknowledge the public significance of music’s power over the soul” [Carson Holloway, All Shook Up: Music, Passion, and Politics (Dallas: Spence Publishing, …
Five Yards of Charm
“For example, some readers might be wondering if a worldview can have a number assigned to it. Isn’t this a bit like saying a student has ten pounds of poetic ability or five yards of charm?” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, p. 101).