Modern institutions talk about themselves. When a corporation refashions itself—undergoes a complete makeover not merely to look different, but to play an entirely different role—this revolution is fundamentally a matter of talk. Such a transformation took place in the . . . . Continue Reading »
Twenty-five years ago when there was still a Communist East Germany, I interviewed several boys from Leipzig’s Thomanerchor, the choir once led by Johann Sebastian Bach. Many of those children came from atheistic homes. “Is it possible to sing Bach without faith?” I asked them. “Probably . . . . Continue Reading »
Morality and Contemporary Warfare by james turner johnson yale university press, 259 pages, $25 The average person has every reason to approach somewhat skeptically books with titles like Morality and Contemporary Warfare . And one should not be supposed “anti-intellectual” if that skepticism . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s an old and famous story about a community of people who live in a cave. Fires burn behind them, throwing shadows of various shapes onto the cave wall; and never having seen real objects in the sunlight, the cave people think these shadows are the only and most complete reality. One day, . . . . Continue Reading »
There was some puzzlement among John Stuart Mill’s contemporaries that he should publish his tract On Liberty, with its deep concern for the tyranny of public opinion, when the press in England was the freest in the world and the public life of the country was vibrant with controversy in politics . . . . Continue Reading »
The first word from the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Christians call them the Triduum Sacru, the three most sacred days of the year, the three most sacred days of all time when time is truly told. Maundy Thursday, so called because that night before he was betrayed . . . . Continue Reading »
It would no doubt be foolish to suggest that there is a single, essential contribution which Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) can make to us from across the span of a century and a quarter since his birth. In the first place, how could one simplify a man of such complex talents? And in the . . . . Continue Reading »
When I heard that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) planned to send 100,000 volunteers to Chicago next summer to evangelize the city, my first reaction was, Good luck. (Perhaps I have been living in New York too long.) Evangelism, of course, is essential to Christianity. The Great Commission . . . . Continue Reading »
How Now Shall We Live?by charles colson and nancy pearceytyndale, 580 pages, $22.99 In 1993, when Washington Post writer Michael Weisskopf issued his notorious declaration that evangelicals are “largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command,” conservative Protestant intellectuals were quick to . . . . Continue Reading »
The Concept of Biblical Theology: An Old Testament Perspectiveby james barrfortress, 715 pages, $40 Formerly the Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford and now the Distinguished Professor of Hebrew Bible Emeritus at Vanderbilt Divinity School, James Barr is surely one of the leading biblical scholars . . . . Continue Reading »
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