Cultural Recusancy in Quotations from Men Whose Names Start with Initials

…the spirit of wickedness in high places is now so powerful and many-headed in its incarnations that there seems nothing more to do than personally to refuse to worship any of the hydras’ heads. – J. R. R. Tolkien, from a 1969 letter to Amy Ronald The world is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will…

The Theological Significance of Political Liberty

While attending this conference this weekend, I happened in some of my offhand remarks during one of the discussion sessions to tip my political hand as “localist / libertarian-leaning.” Of course, questions of ecology and how to work with God’s creation eventually do lead to economic and political issues, though I felt the conference successfully mostly steered clear of such things. (My impression of…

Reason and Conversion to Christ

A longtime friend of mine (and former co-worker from my stagehand days) has apparently listened to the Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy podcast a lot more times than I have (he claims seven times, poor fellow). He recently sent me a note entitled “The subjugation of reason” and gave me permission to publish an excerpt here, along with my response: At your leisure, I would request…

Raising Humanity

The following is an excerpt from the lecture on evangelism which I will be giving in Bethlehem this coming Sunday. This represents some of my first articulated thinking on localist themes with regard to evangelism. Another aspect to the question of location in evangelism is perhaps a bit less obvious, and that is the need for us to foster human community in the places…

To the Beyond

I just read the obituary for the fine barber I wrote about back in August. It’s tough to find a good barber, and it’s tougher still, I think, to find a good man. Rest peacefully, Barty. May your memory be eternal.