“One of the reasons many apologists are not nearly as effective as Lewis is that they want the cold granite of reason to do everything. But true reason will collapse before a false imagination. False imagination must be answered by a true imagination, and when that happens, reason can flourish in its native habitat” (Writers …
What the Actual Mistake Was
“Keep in mind that the battle between Galileo and the church was not a battle between science and mindless fundamentalism. It was a battle between new science and old science, and the error of the church had been that of getting into bed with the best science of the day. And we all know, as …
A Real Challenge
“What happens when you try to put eternity into a human life? The same thing as when you try to put the Pacific Ocean into a thimble, only worse” (Writers to Read, p. 88).
A Glorious Turn
“Even Galadriel is a penitent” (Writers to Read, p. 88).
Magic Temptation
“The world of The Lord of the Rings is the very reverse of this—the good guys there represent a photo negative of magic. The ring of power is the ultimate symbol of magic in the traditional sense, and the whole point of the book is to destroy it, resisting all temptations to use it” (Writers …
Too Self-Aware
“J.R.R. Tolkien had a problem, along with C.S. Lewis, and as we should also, with sentences that begin like this” (Writers to Read, p. 75).
Love Up Stream and Down
“Honoring our parents (and ancestors) does not need to reduce to mere tribalism. Loving and nourishing our distant children is not superstition” (Writers to Read, p. 71).
Which Is a Weak Spot in the Resume
“If I worship the true God, then I am worshiping the Ancient of Days, the eternal God. But if I worship any created thing whatsoever, I am serving something that used to be nothing” (Writers to Read, p. 69, HT: Tim Edwards).
The Truth Has Preachers, Not Sponsors
“We want to be careful that we don’t participate in an unseemly scramble for the big names to adorn our position, as though theology were a particular kind of shaving cream that needs a second baseman for the Yankees to endorse it” (Writers to Read, p. 66).
Not Wowsers at All
“We are victims of anachronistic slander if we think that the Puritans were in any way, well, puritanical. That term came to be applied to the bluenoses and wowsers well after the Puritan party had brought back into Christian discipleship an incarnational embrace of all material things” (Writers to Read, pp. 65-66).