“The reason the contemporary expression is not noticed is because everything about it is so commonplace. The forms of contemporary worship are not hard to see because they are spiritual; they are hard to see because they have thoroughly taken on the color of their surroundings. While it is true that angels are hard to …
Well, Lookee Here
“When modern man finally figured out how to navigate across oceans (hooray for us!), and when Captain Cook first reached the Hawaiian Isalands, what did he find there? Well, he found people. It appears that some ancient men with rudiemtnary technology knew how to sail across the Pacific; otherwise, they wouldn’t have done it. They …
The Duty of Irrelevance
“There are at least two kinds of irrelevance. One is the irrelevance of offering a bicycle to an oyster. But there is another kind of irrelevance entirely, and that is the practice of setting forth the gospel of light and righteousness to those who love their darkness and iniquity. We are commanded to be irrelevant …
True Center
“All cultures have a cultus at the center. The center of every culture is its worship. There is no such thing as a religion-less culture, and the same is true of all sub-cultures” (A Primer on Worship and Reformation, p. 12).
Into the Deep Fog Actually
“Modern evangelicals have a ravenous hunger to be hipper than thou. They have a deep and covetous hunger to be cool — and so we have bestselling authors, Grammy award winners, trademark lawyers, Designer Bibles with Study Notes for just about everybody, rock bands with guys filled with middle class white guy angst, earrings, and …
What We Put Up With
“Like the ancient Corinthians, modern evangelicalism suffers fools gladly. The point is not that every individual in the contemporary Church is a scoundrel. The point is that there are many scoundrels, doing very well, thank you, and the rest of us put up with them. This is our sin: we suffer fools gladly” (A Primer …
Patriotism As Obedience to the Fifth Commandment
“Affection and love for your own people are an extended function of honoring your father and mother. When patriotism goes to seed, becoming a jingoistic nationalism, it gives patriotism a bad name. It is the difference between gratitude and arrogant pride. Patriotism stifles the spirit of war; nationalism breeds wars. Patriotism is catholic; nationalism is …
A Pretty Big Relic
“It is hard to take any view seriouisly when it would result in enough pieces of the Virgin Mary’s veil to make a tent for Barnum and Bailey” (A Primer on Worship and Reformation, p. 8).
Historians Make Choices
“It has sometimes been assumed that an accurate and objective history is one that simply records all the salient facts, as though video footage recording all event from sky cameras were somehow available at the university media center . . . But once it was realized, more recently, that all histories are selections made by …
And a Lot of Them Too
“The Church in our nation is in a bad way. This comment is . . . directed at . . . the vibrant and active section that we call modern evangelicalism. Now of course there isn’t a problem with activity per se, but in the conservative and evangelical wing of the Church, vibrancy and activity …