WSC alumnus Shane Lems in the latest Mod Ref.
"I Want a Real Chaplain, Who Believes in a Real God and a Real Hell"
Subjectivist-therapeutic religion is fine, until it’s time to die.
late modernity
In Season: Preaching to the Postmodern Choir
When the "Postmodern" Isn't
Chris Terry Nelson at Disruptive Grace has a great quotation from Bruce McCormack explaining why what many call “postmodernism” isn’t that at all. It’s really Romanticism or subjectivism or late modernism. If you’re in my Adult Catechism Class at OURC close your . . . Continue reading →
Covenants, Adam, Modernity, and Context Pt 2 (HC 15)
Part 1 15. What kind of a mediator and redeemer then must we seek? One who is a true1 and righteous man,2 and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, One who is also true God.3 11 Cor 15:21, 22, 25, . . . Continue reading →
What Happens When Reader is King
Carl explains this and other absurdities at Ref21.
Anne Rice is Right (and Wrong)
I understand why Anne Rice has renounced (HT: Aquila Report) the visible, institutional church. She’s a modern and she’s an American. She might also have some “authority issues” (she was born “Howard Allen O’Brien“) but I digress. Yes, she’s Romanist but she’s . . . Continue reading →
S-T-O-P Means Stop (or Does it?)
In 25 years of ministry one of the most profound changes I’ve seen is the growing inability and/or unwillingness of Americans to read texts according to the intent of the author. One of the major reasons for this change was the mutation . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 67: The Sacraments Are True Signs And Seals Of Christ And His Gospel (1)
67. Are both the Word and the Sacraments designed to direct our faith to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation? Yes truly, for the Holy Spirit teaches in the Gospel and assures us by . . . Continue reading →
S-T-O-P Means Stop
Introduction In 25 years of ministry one of the most profound changes I’ve seen is the growing inability and/or unwillingness of Americans to read texts according to the intent of the author. One of the major reasons for this change was the . . . Continue reading →
The Oxford Dictionaries’ Word Of 2016: “Post-Truth”
The BBC reports that the word of the year for 2016 the compound “post-truth.” Oddly, however, there is no entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for “post-truth.” It does not occur in my computer’s Oxford American Dictionary. Nevertheless, apparently, in some . . . Continue reading →
Thanksgiving And Liquid Modernity
In the United States this last Thursday in November is our national day of Thanksgiving. This has been a national holiday since President Abraham made it so in 1863, in the midst of our Civil War. There had been, as Lee Edwards . . . Continue reading →
The Translation Of The Lord’s Prayer Is Not A Mere Convention
Francis, the Bishop of Rome (who claims to be the universal vicar of Christ on the earth) has recently announced his opinion that the translation of the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer should be revised. Anthony Esolen has published a terrific . . . Continue reading →
Understanding Our Liquid, Therapeutic Age
Perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of this present age is the sheer speed with which unquestioned orthodoxies—for example, the nature of marriage, or the tight connection between biology and gender, or the vital importance of free speech to a free . . . Continue reading →
How Did We Get To Drag Queen Story Hour?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) is a key source, with his provocative notion that human learning—the “arts and sciences” of his First Discourse—is actually that which corrupts us and hinders us being truly ourselves. Uncultured instincts and feelings are really who we are; civilization . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerrilla: Punctuation Is Not Mean Spirited. Full Stop.
According to a number of media stories (the original story appeared in the UK Telegraph) Generation Z, those born 1995–2015, find certain punctuation marks threatening. The argument is that the use of the period (“full stop” in the UK) in text messages (and . . . Continue reading →
Demons In The Digital Age
One of the myths that has been exploded in late modernity is that we Westerners are an “Enlightened” people, who have moved beyond demons, ghosts, and religion. We are not and we have not. I am not saying that we have not . . . Continue reading →
Brooks Describes The Problem But Does He Answer The Central Question: Why?
During most of the 20th century, through depression and wars, Americans expressed high faith in their institutions. In 1964, for example, 77 percent of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do the right thing most or all of the time. Then came the last two moral convulsions. In the late 1960s and ’70s, amid Vietnam and Watergate, trust in institutions collapsed. By 1994, only one in five Americans said they trusted government to do the right thing. Then came the Iraq War and the financial crisis and the election of Donald Trump. Institutional trust levels remained pathetically low. Continue reading →
Post-Christian Americans Are Not Less Religious, Just More Pagan
This trend can be observed on the basis of age cohort: Young adults, being less religious, are more inclined to believe in ghosts, astrology, clairvoyance and spiritual energy. But it also can be observed geographically: The parts of the United States where . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Carl Trueman Explains Why The World Seems So Upside Down
Or Why It Seems Rude To Call Caitlyn, Bruce And Elliot, Ellen
If you are of sufficient age, you remember when Caitlyn Jenner was Bruce Jenner, one of the greatest Olympic Athletes in modern history. He won the gold medal in the Decathlon in the 1976 Olympics. If you are a little younger you . . . Continue reading →
The Proper Response To Postmodernism
There is a good deal of talk in contemporary evangelicalism about the rise, nature, and effect of so-called “postmodernism,” a movement in architecture, literature, philosophy, and religion associated with a circle of French writers such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. In . . . Continue reading →