“Bygone trendiness is simply not good enough for the scholarship of current trendiness. This is a constant problem; trendiness never stays put, and what’s cool usually assumes room temperature at some point” (Contours of Post Maturity, pp. 10-11).
What “Is” Truth?
“So let’s start our book review ruminations by pointing out that when we start putting “truth” in quotation marks, we must start with the truth that “truth” must be in quotation marks. And where does that leave us? Not only do we have ever-increasing punctuation problems and hard, pointed questions from our tech proofers, we …
Just Asking For It
“They [IVP] published Truth is Stranger Than It Used To Be, The Openness of God, and Christian Apologetics in a Postmodern World, all books which invite warm and enthusiastic invective in the full-throated Johannine tradition. All three books exhibit exegetical skylarking in excelsis. So why not have at it? And let me just say for …
Nations Raised
“As the gospel makes its way through a treacherous world, we have seen the righteous fall many times, and before the Lord comes again, we will see them fall again. But whenever the righteous fall, those who lament must be sons of Abraham. They must serve the God who calls those things that do not …
Root and Fruit
“Our problems are spiritual, and the solutions are the Word and sacraments. The charge was not “go ye, and elect right-of-center congresspersons.” Now certainly the gospel has an effect on all of culture, as it should. But results are not causes; apples are not roots” (Angels in the Architecture, p. 203).
Words and Decimal Places
“But words do not have decimal places. Neither do flowers and volcanoes. The eye can see but cannot do logarithms. A toddler can catch a ball but cannot do the math necessary to enable him to do so. Symbols or numbers in a mathematical formula have a denotation but no connotation to speak of. The …
All Epistemologists Used to be Toddlers
“When we have come of age, we should look back on the process and see that where we came from does not define who God is. God reveals Himself to the mature mind as ultimate and transcendant. Our experience does not contain Him or define Him. But His sovereign majesty does contain our experience. In …
She Blinded Me With Science
“Another problem coming from the heart of man is our desire to blindly bestow robes of authority, which, in our modern world, we have done to the scientists. The mystique of Science has bestowed on a certain class within our society the stature of priests. Only a madman would try to market headache medicine today …
Architectural Progress
“Look at the arrogance of technopoly–the skyscraper, the outside covered with reptilian mirror-like scales. Look at the impressive design of the thing–a box set on its end. Now look at a medieval cathedral and explain to us all why you still believe in progress. The flying buttress was a technological marvel, but it was built …
Ambition and the Dance
“But the medievalist would define legitimate ambition as the desire to identify one’s station and attempt to get there, regardless of the dignity of that station. The medievalist thinks of our entire existence as a dance, in which some bow and some curtsey, some play the music and some dance, some laugh in gladness and …