“In fact, so many appeals are made to ‘most scholars’ that the young student may be tempted to try to find articles at the library listed under Most Scholars’ Review. Even those Christian colleges that have managed to retain some doctrinal integrity with regard to their Christian commitments have capitulated to the spirit of academic …
The Pagan Pendulum
“Knowing this, we infer that periods of the past must have been much more elevated than our own. This, of course, is a questionable conclusion. What does seem to be the case, however, is that often, as periods succeed each other, some of what takes place is driven by reaction. The Apollonian impulse is often …
The Elective System
“The market system works just fine when we are seeking the kind of toothpaste that suits us best. But when the true, the good, and the beautiful are made into elective courses, no one should be surprised when freshmen consistently sign up for the far more popular courses promoting the false, the wrong, and the …
Once Carefree
“We have known too many kids, like the younger son in the parable, who have separated themselves from their parents, thrown off the traces, and heard in the lure of the far country . . . the promise of adventure and boundless pleasure. And for so many this has turned to ashes. The grand and …
Where the Problem Started
“The declension of culture in America is comparable to well-meaning but naive parents who raise a child without discipline and without instilling self-control and who are then shocked at the extent of the rebellion apparent when that child gets away from home. The extent of our current rebellion can be seen in our cultural parade …
Pagan Tug of War
“This situation has stolen up upon us so quietly that its real nature is largely obscured. I believe that what Camille Paglia, provocatrice extraordinaire, has said with respect to our pop culture is correct. We are witnessing, she asserts, ‘an eruption of the never-defeated paganism of the West.’ Her thesis, which she developed in some …
The Pudding That Proves
“According to a popular mythology in more conservative circles, the nineteenth century was a time of strong traditional values, when it was actually a monkey house of radicalism. The traditional values, such as they were, were the harvest of what had been planted in previous centuries — vestiges of Christendom. But the crop that was …
Pastiche Personality
“The pastiche personality of the baby boomer, a personality suckled on rock music and television during the postwar years, is the major force behind the redrawing of the religious landscape in America today . . . Among the boomers inside and outside the church . . . there is a hunger for religious experience but …
Muddling About
“But studied neutrality is impossible, and obnoxious examples are cropping up more and more frequently, in fulfillment of a collegial application of the dictim that a man who doesn’t stand for something will fall for anything. We now find the Zeitgeist appearing in raunchy requirements for classes, ‘revivals’ that resemble group therapy confessionals, and urbane …
Designer Religion
“The distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture is not primarily moral or even aesthetic, with the one being invariably superior and the other invariably inferior. Richard Rorty’s post-modern philosophical emptiness consists of essentially the same stuff as Madonna’s post-modern philosophical emptiness, and Carl Roger’s psychological narcissism is essentially reduplicated in such magazines as Self and …