I recently noted with interest a new reading technology/app that is about to be rolled out. The technology is called Spritz. I also noted with interest some of the responses to it — as in, “won’t be long now, one more clean shirt, o tempora, o mores . . .” This spritzing technology enables you …
Mark Driscoll and Problems of Citation
I don’t have much to say about the ruckus these last few weeks concerning the allegation of plagiarism by Mark Driscoll, an allegation that was made by Janet Mefferd, and then subsequently withdrawn by her. Not having much to say, I intend therefore to not say it. Initially I thought to say nothing whatever, but …
Is Someone Trying to Tell Me Something?
I want to tell you about something that has happened to me twice, in the span of just a few days. Then I will try to draw out an edifying lesson from it. Last Sunday, I was reading one of Peter Leithart’s books — Ascent of Love — to accompany my reading of the Divine …
Marcion After a Couple of Beers
Robert Farrar Capon has gone to be with the Lord (1925-2013), and there are a couple of nice retrospectives here and here. For sheer exuberance in writing, that man had few who could keep up with him. In the great cross country race for the colorful metaphor, he was the kind of runner who could …
The Church in The Pilgrim’s Progress
For a few years now one of my side hobbies has been that of defending and/or explaining The Pilgrim’s Progress. For various reasons, modern Christians have taken it into their heads to feel very superior to it, I can’t really explain why. Our generation has a very cordial dislike of allegory, but the medievals were …
On Reading Yourself in the Story
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter answered Edmund — when Edmund asked if they really wanted to follow a bird they didn’t know in a world they didn’t know — this way: “That’s a nasty idea. Still — a robin you know. They’re good birds in all the stories I’ve ever read. …
Opening Remarks at Wordsmithy 2012
As wordsmiths, as writers, one of the first things we should do is recognize that the Christian faith is necessarily logocentric. Jesus is the Word, and the Word is with God and the Word is God. Just as the Pythagoreans were religious about their math, so also we worship the Word. We think math is …
Marauders of Literary Fashion
Read widely enough so that you are not provincial, but not so widely that you become some sort of deracinated cosmopolitan. Walls that are too narrow can stifle all thought and originality. Walls that are not there at all leave you defenseless. Marauders of literary fashion come galloping in, and there you are. Loyalty of …
A Three Pound Fruitcake
Having urged aspiring writers to try their hand at many different forms of the writer’s art, I must now introduce a necessary cautionary note. Competence in one area is not something that transfers automatically to another. Examples of those who have failed to recognize this crowd instantly into our minds. The fact that Michael Jordan …
Uncommon Commonplaces
My last bit of advice on the wordriht life was this: “Keep a commonplace book. Write down any notable phrases that occur to you, or that you have come across. If it is one that you have found in another writer, and it is striking, then quote it, as the fellow said, or modify it …