“Jesus came into the world to save us from our sins, and our political sins are not exempt from this salvation” (God Rest Ye Merry, 65).
You Don’t Want Change Unless You Want a Fight
“This means that reformers should expect resistance and conflict. A reformer does not walk onto the stage to polite applause . . . When you are attacked by the powers that be, this is not a sign that something has gone dangerously wrong. There is no distinction to be made between working for reformation and …
Dead Set Against It
“Herod knew what many Christians do not. The birth of this child meant that the old way of ruling mankind was doomed. The transition from the old way of rule to the new way of rule was not going to be simple or easy, but it was going to happen. Of the increase of the …
So Start at This End
“Expecting our faith to affect the larger polis when it has not yet changed the average shelf at the local Christian book store is expecting something that is not going to happen” (Rules for Reformers, p. 5).
And Never for the Applause of the Adversary
“Reformation involves conflict, as we shall see in a moment, but how you fight makes all the difference. Should you fight like a cavalier, with swift sword play and witticisms, or like a thug and a wart on your nose? The besetting sin of ostensible reformers is the sin of shrillness and officious forms of …
The Light Is in the Sky
“The sun has risen. Christ has come. He is the king. the light covers the world. A return to heathen midnight is an impossibility. Those who walk in darkness now are doing so in a world suffused with light. This is hard to do — you have to remain blind, or hide in root cellars. …
Probably Not Big Enough
“Secular conservatism is like trying to use your pocket handkerchief to slow you down after the main chute has failed” (Rules for Reformers, p. 2).
Just Another Paradox
“That legacy [of C.S. Lewis] is a large contributor to my willingness to luxuriate in my quite oxymoronic goal of becoming and remaining a Chestertonian Calvinist” (From The Romantic Rationalist, p. 80).
Where the Analogy Actually Breaks Down
“So are we greater than pots? Fine. God is much greater than any potter” (From The Romantic Rationalist, p. 78).
Imitate More, Not Less
“Hack writers do not sub-create a world; they simply rearrange furniture in a glibly assumed (and largely unexamined) prefab world. If necessary, they make it an ‘other world’ fantasy by having two moons in the sky or by naming their protagonist something like Shambilar. But this is just moving things around on the surface. There …