Religion vs. Liberal Democracy
“Liberalism very much wants to believe that it is being fair to religion, but what it calls fairness amounts to cutting religion down to liberal size.” . . . . “The conflict between the liberal state, with its devotion to procedural rather than substantive norms, and religion, which is all substance from its doctrines to its procedures, is intractable.” —Stanley Fish, New York Times In other words, liberal democracy and religion, specifically Christianity, cannot coexist when one says “treat...
True
“Apart from God, one can pursue truth and beauty, but at some point, one must cross the bridge to the Faith to complete the journey.” —My old boss, summarizing a theologian I cannot remember
One More Excerpt from Alan Jacobs’ Latest Book
Jonathan Swift, Jacobs says, looked for “some method . . . for ascertaining and fixing our language for ever.” Jacobs comments: This is a recurrent theme among linguistic academicians and their allies: a deep conviction that the dominant usage of their own time—or, more precisely, the usage into which they were educated, the usage of their youth and young adulthood—is a pure or ideal form of the language, any deviation from which marks a decline. Language is a living entity. You can’t force it...
Special Post for BJU Press Employees
I have a few readers at BJU Press. I encourage you, especially, to process all four posts in my Bible Integration series. I feel safe doing so because the core levels material is not original with me (though anything extra is not necessarily endorsed by the Press) but with our BI guys! Bible Integration is a Mandate Priority at BJU Press, and no matter what department you’re in, you should have a basic idea of what it means. Bible Integration is what sets us apart. I’m convinced that whoever...
Alan Jacobs: BBEdit Freak, Essay Master
I keep insisting to my wife that I’m not a real reader. I play at it. I pretend by force of will to be a reader. I wanna be one when I grow up. That’s all. But there are those writers who turn me into a reader by their force of will, their skill and verve and depth. Alan Jacobs is one of those. On his blog, Jacobs reveals his night-time identity as a word-processor control-freak who actually uses BBEdit to write everything because it gives him complete layout mastery. But in his books—like The...