Some define liberalism as being founded on a belief in a ‘universal man’, some common essential which, unless obscured by its refusal, is present in all persons. On this ground, liberalism asserts, no actual difference is discernable between Englishmen, Pakistanis,
Parts One and Two laid out the usefulness of a metaphor for civilizations in history, the metric Scripture gives for understanding civilizations (I), and why several of the common genres of such metaphors are less than suited for purpose (II).
The Imperfections of the Competition As intimated in the first entry to this triple-feature, mankind has many, many metaphors to describe civilization. Coming up with one is a common part of promulgating a theory of history. Today, we’ll consider four
How do you conceive of a civilization or a society? When you discuss history, does a society rise and fall? Is it young or old, solar or lunar, a part of a season-cycle? How do you picture a society’s lifespan?
Last week covered the foundations of symbolism (symmetry, sameness, and difference), as well as the levels of intentional present in narrative uses of symbolism. This week I promised to discuss…. Analogy Analogy is symbolic, though it is not symbolism proper.
The problem of evil is old and tired and jagged, the sort of thing philosophers regularly cut themselves on quite badly, then go on bleeding all over history. Then along comes an ordinary Christian and deals with it in practice,
I watched a ten second clip in which a man was killed. Charlie Kirk opened his mouth to speak; the side of his neck exploded outwards; he fell to the ground. Some time later, he died, despite all efforts to
Theology and writing have a sometimes fraught interaction. Art has an apparent opposition to theology, if we consider how awful preachiness can get, how making a story into a tract makes it a very bad story. At the same time,
Tautologies, we all know, are useless; definitions, meanwhile, are useful. Yet a definition, once we get down to the brass tacks of it, is very nearly a tautology; both sides of the equation, ideally, have not only the same meaning
The problem of the world is that it doesn’t cultivate righteousness. Modern society is, as I laid out last week, hostile to God, hostile therefore to healthy relationships between men. This isn’t unusual, historically, but it still means we need