A thin vision. Avalon presents, in theory, a vision of kingship as a pinnacle of right authority, the conduit of national blessing to a people, the bringer, when its potential is fulfilled and when the right king reigns by the
Only a few stand-outs. The side characters of Avalon have their ups and their flats. No character in the bunch is disastrous or painful, but plenty of them make little to no impact, flitting about in small stereotypes, a trait
Destiny must be integrated. Lawhead’s Avalon has a double problem with the numinous, with the spiritual sense it delivers to the reader. On the one hand, it falls short of what it promises, and that’s about the greatest sin a
Flashes of fulfilling its potential. Today I’d like to jump on the popular topic, only a few weeks late (probably), because that’s my usual course of action. Daily Wire, with whom I have no contentions at all, has put out
How do we respond to modernity? Probably my favorite Chesterton novel is the hilarious and pointed The Flying Inn, a book replete with doggerel, bits of poetry strung together by the characters as they run amuck through England, bearing the
Stories are not intellectual didactism. “Too often critics… have treated the Chronicles [of Narnia] as if they were principally works of propaganda and have exchanged their poetry for a pot of message,” write Michael Ward on page 22 of Planet
The PCA’s interesting vocabulary. When I read the PCA’s interim report, one word struck me almost physically: “reactionary.” The term arrives in the midst of Point 11 of their ‘Affirmations and Denials’ (pg 11), wherein the report’s authors allow that
Shaping an effective, motivated minority. Let’s return to a concept in Dr. Gilfedder’s article in Islander VI: the need for a substantial class of cultural thought-shapers (character-lights), in light of the divisiveness of the developing ‘right wing’ intelligentsia-elite. On the
Stories are conveyances and expressions of worldview. The final article in Islander VI, by Alexander Adams, presents a sets of theses in synthesis. First, that the worthwhile battlefield is in the cultural (including the artistic) sphere, rather than the political.
There is no political solution. Dr. Gilfedder’s article in Islander VI follows the pattern of all the best parts of the magazine: penetrating insight and worthwhile thought which stops a crucial step short of the mark. His thesis in this