“If we bring this down into the present in order to illustrate what it would mean to us, paideia would include the books on the bestseller lists, the major newspapers, the most popular sitcoms and networks, the songs on the top forty lists, the motion pictures seen by everyone, the architectural layout of most suburban …
School Reform
“When Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning was published in 1991, the government school system was in crisis. Some thought that it could not get any worse, but in the time since then, the unthinkable (even for then) has become commonplace. Still many Christians have not yet come to grips with the foundational nature of …
The Root of Affectation
“Sir Henry Savile (one of the scholars who prepared the King James Version of the Bible) read the indictment, almost four centuries ago” ‘Vanity,’ he said, ‘is the sin, and affectation is the punishment: the first may be called the root of self-love, the other the fruit. Vanity is never at its full growth till …
Paideia Central
[Speaking of ancient Greek civilization] “Further, the point of paideia was to bring that culture about. To find a word of comparable importance to them, we would have to hunt around for a word like ‘philosophy.’ To find a word of comparable importance in our culture, we would have to point to something like ‘democracy.’ …
So Much Genius, So Little Talent
“Reputations born of hyperbole must gather ever more hyperbolic hyperbole unto themselves, else they die (and take their fabricators with them). The problem, of course, is that there is a point above which a reputation cannot rise: once a writer has become the most important writer of the day, he or she has nowhere to …
All You Need Is Love
“Love that refuses to defend that which is loved is not biblical love at all. Such a sentiment is actually self-absorbtion. Love that shuns a fight is an oxymoron, and so I turn the charge around. The modern evangelical world says peace, peace, but there is no peace. Neither is there love. I love the …
The All-Purpose Disinfectant
In talking about Christ and pop culture, we should always remember the basic options. Among them would be a basic distinction that appears to be beyond many afficianados of pop culture. It is this: you are either persuading or being persuaded. And watching evangelical Christians try to act like a “Christian worldview” is an all-purpose …
Everything Is Important Because Nothing Is
“The Let’s Pretend We’re Living In A Golden Age game was not a new one. For decades the entire cultural establishment had been putting itself to sleep at night by telling itself over and over again that it was a truly stupendous little cultural establishment, probably the most important little cultural establishment that had ever …
One, Two, Three, Now!
“The blessing has been so significant that we have continued our satiric tact with an additional objective in mind — keeping the suits and haircuts away. Whenever a promising movement of the Holy Spirit begins nowadays, one of the first things that happens is that the agents, businessmen, and other assorted handlers move in so …
Yesterday’s Avant-Garde
“It was a sign of the times that nobody bothered to correct him, simply because it didn’t seem to matter anymore: an era was dying with bewildering speed, and not all the righteous incantations in the English-speaking world could restore the patient to health. By 1980, even the most persistent apologists for the old regime-the …