“What is the authority of the critic, exactly? Where does it come from? A certain measure of it has to be the capacity to generate fear, which is probably why successful critics generally know how to slash as they write” (Writers to Read, p. 33).
The Labyrinth of Brainy Parts
“Serious thought takes the world as it actually is. This is quite different from taking it as ‘serious’ thinkers do, locked up as they are in the back recesses of their brainy parts” (Writers to Read, p. 28).
Beyond the Times
“The Christian faith is permanently sane and is therefore always a bit out of fashion. Fads and fashions are mild insanities, Chesterton taught, and that is why the church always seems behind the times. It is actually beyond the times” (Writers to Read, p. 27).
The Last Piece of Pie
“You give the last piece of pie to God, who doesn’t eat pie, by giving it to your neighbor, who does” (Writers to Read, p. 26).
The Centrality of Peripherals
“But remember, the fruit—which Christ required for identifying the nature of a tree—is way out on the edges of the tree and is at the farthest point away from the root. We must recover the understanding that peripherals are central because the center is important. The root is the most important, and is central, and …
Everything Matters
“Everything is connected. Everything matters. Nonsense tolerated anywhere will metastasize, and the results are always ugly” (Writers to Read, p. 25).
Earthy or Worldly?
“We affirm a fundamental creational loyalty to the world and constantly thwart the world’s desire to become disloyal to itself. This is why it is good to be earthy and bad to be worldly. Worldliness is just a clever way of deserting the world. This is the explanation of why worldliness is so consistently weary …
Ordinary Loyalty
“Modern man, progressive man, has an insatiable lust to interfere with the ordinary things. He strives to become superman and only succeeds in erasing ordinary men” (Writers to Read, p. 24).
Inverted Reputation
“Athanasius had to stand contra mundum, and it is he who is the representative man from that era and not the whole world he had to contend against” (Writers to Read, p. 21).
Love Has Fists
“Loving something while being unwilling to fight for it would be better categorized as lust” (Writers to Read, p. 20).