February 2012
1 post
“In the centre of the picture a gigantic Christ, of disproportionate size if...”
– Grunewald, J.-K. Huysmans
Feb 9th
January 2012
16 posts
“God, that madest earth and Heaven, Darkness and light; Who the day for toil...”
– Suggestion: This old hymn makes a good bedtime prayer. 
Jan 30th
This week I taught a class in Christian theology. All day, 5 days in a row. I thought I had it rough. One of my students was legally blind. His name is Tom. He has partial vision in one eye, and uses a special device to read the copies of my lecture notes I printed out for him. The scanner blew every word up to about a million-point font on his TV monitor. Inverting the black and white to make it...
Jan 28th
“Two late-stage terminal drug addicts sat up against an alley’s wall with...”
– David Foster Wallace, “Octet” (via on dfw) We need more philosophers and theologians who engage in “indirect communication.”
Jan 28th
20 notes
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,...”
– - Shakespeare, As You Like It This is helpful to say to yourself in tough times, probably a bad idea to say to others.
Jan 28th
49 notes
“[C]heap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,...”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s response to that rapping guy who hates the church - from The Cost of Discipleship.
Jan 21st
“You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes...”
– Athanasius, On the Incarnation  In §13-14 Athanasius’s theological argument seems informed, fundamentally, not by divine justice, or abstract agape, but by a yearning for a particular “thou.” Even his kingly metaphors are all centered on the king’s loving attachment to...
Jan 17th
1 note
The present importance of the Book of Job cannot be expressed adequately even by saying that it is the most interesting of ancient books. We may almost say of the Book of Job that it is the most interesting of modern books. In truth, of course, neither of the two phrases covers the matter, because fundamental human religion and fundamental human irreligion are both at once old and new; philosophy...
Jan 17th
1 note
“St Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the...”
– C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
Jan 17th
1 note
“Endeavour then to convince yourself, not by increase of proofs of God, but by...”
– Pascal, Pensee 233, The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pascal’s Pensées, by Blaise Pascal.
Jan 17th
1 note
“In order to attack it, they should have protested that they had made every...”
– Pascal, Pensee 194 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pascal/pensees.txt
Jan 16th
1 note
“The Song helps us relearn what nearly every civilization before ours already...”
– Peter Leithart, The Poetry of Sex | First Things
Jan 13th
1 note
Jan 8th
37 notes
“This is why the loss of religious certainty facilitated the birth of kitsch....”
– Kitsch and the Modern Predicament by Roger Scruton, City Journal Winter 1999
Jan 8th
4 notes
“Kitsch is pretense. But not all pretense is kitsch. Something else is needed to...”
– Kitsch and the Modern Predicament by Roger Scruton, City Journal Winter 1999
Jan 8th
15 notes
“The world of kitsch is a world of make-believe, of permanent childhood, in which...”
– Kitsch and the Modern Predicament by Roger Scruton, City Journal Winter 1999
Jan 8th
“Wright on the Virgin Birth: We would have to suppose that, within the first...”
– Suspending scepticism: History and the Virgin Birth – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Jan 1st
December 2011
5 posts
“Because of piety’s penchant for taking itself too seriously, theology does well...”
– Tom Oden (via Philip Tallon on Twitter)
Dec 26th
43 notes
Dec 23rd
3 notes
I take pleasure in three things, and they are beautiful in the sight of God and of mortals: agreement among brothers and sisters, friendship among neighbours, and a wife and husband who live in harmony. - Sirach 25:1
Dec 23rd
“The most important element in this teaching declares: the ultimate fulfillment,...”
– Infinite Resources: Josef Pieper’s Only the Lover Sings
Dec 22nd
Ambrose's Advent Prayer
In honor of St. Ambrose Day (Dec. 7th), an advent prayer by the man himself: O God, who did look on humanity when they had fallen down into death and resolve to redeem them by the advent of your only-begotten Son, grant, we ask you, that they who confess his glorious incarnation may also be admitted to the fellowship of him their Redeemer; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dec 7th
November 2011
1 post
Larry Doyle on Comic Writing | FiveBooks | The... →
Nov 6th
August 2011
2 posts
Aug 22nd
Aug 17th
July 2011
2 posts
Jul 30th
“[CRITIC A wrongly interpreting Malick’s TREE OF LIFE:] For all the...”
– The Conversations: Terrence Malick, Part 2: The Tree of Life | The House Next Door
Jul 5th
January 2011
1 post
Jan 24th
November 2010
2 posts
“Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley, Wet, below the snow line,...”
– Journey of the Magi - T.S. Eliot
Nov 22nd
“For your fair sakes have we neglected time, Play’d foul play with our...”
– Love’s Labour’s Lost: Entire Play
Nov 5th
October 2010
1 post
Oct 18th
September 2010
3 posts
“‎”A secular world has no time for mystery…..the basic and...”
– via Charles Twombly
Sep 13th
Sep 6th
3 notes
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
THE GOOD AND BAD WIZARD: One day you meet a wizard who offers you a deal. He tells you that he can either make you much more beautiful or much more intelligent, but not both. Now, let us say instead of meeting this nice wizard you meet a bad wizard. This wizard tells you that he is going to make you either much less good looking or much less intelligent, and you get to choose which. Which do...
Sep 2nd
July 2010
2 posts
“Inception demands sustained attentiveness. As AKMA Adam wrote in an insightful...”
– Inception: The Art of Paying Attention in Books and Film - Debra Dean Murphy - God’s Politics Blog
Jul 26th
Jul 7th
May 2010
10 posts
May 31st
“In his sharp assessment of SATC2, Matt Zoller Seitz calls the film “an...”
– The second Sex and the City movie is even worse than the first. - By Dana Stevens - Slate Magazine
May 27th
May 22nd
May 17th
May 13th
May 12th
The problem isn’t primarily with Evangelical art, it’s with Evangelical theology.   More specifically, it’s with the crummy theology of creativity and creation most Evangelicals have inherited, which sees all media as neutral vehicles for communication.  The pulpit, the radio, the book, the movie, the rock anthem - all identical.  Valuing these things only for their instrumental,...
May 11th
“Brought up an atheist, he has twice failed to pass through the Rite of Christian...”
– Details’ 1996 Profile of David Foster Wallace « Craig Fehrman
May 10th
““In this country,” he says, “we’re unprecedentedly safe, comfortable, and well...”
– Details’ 1996 Profile of David Foster Wallace « Craig Fehrman
May 6th
May 6th
April 2010
12 posts
Apr 27th
“GameStation, a British computer game retailer, added an “immortal soul” clause...”
– The clause was unnecessary. Video games do this already. Have You Accidentally Sold Your Soul Lately? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
Apr 21st
Just read a book on media for pastors written by a pastor who had read a few books on media. Similar experience to overhearing an 8th grader tell a 6th grader about the ways of love. 
Apr 20th
Superman vs. Batman
Premise 1: Superman is stronger than Batman. Premise 2: Batman is smarter than Superman. Premise 3: Superman has a high level of moral integrity, and would never start a fight with a weaker opponent, especially a fellow superhero, unprovoked. Premise 4 (Corollary to Premise 3): If Batman and Superman fought, it would be because Batman initiated the fight. Premise 5: Batman would never initiate...
Apr 12th