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It's the Culture

From the May 2014 Print Edition

What happens to a culture shaped by the Bible, if the culture ceases to believe that the Bible tells truth?” This was the question asked by my initiation paper for a liberal arts discussion group that met more than fifty years ago. In the meantime, we have been finding out the answer. It is not my . . . . Continue Reading »

Can We Have a Story?

From the March 2000 Print Edition

Some time ago I published in this journal an essay on “How the World Lost Its Story” (October 1993). Modernity’s project, I said with great unoriginality, was the attempt to maintain the Bible’s grasp of reality while dispensing with the Bible’s God. The long reading of Scripture in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Contradictions of Modernism

From the October 1999 Print Edition

Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of ModernismBy T. J. Clarke.Yale University Press. 451 pp. $45. I had better put the news right up front: this is a wonderful book, by a Marxist art critic. To be sure, Professor Clark is Marxist in the way of the offended consciousness––he is Marxist . . . . Continue Reading »

“The American People”

From the April 1999 Print Edition

Sometimes the phrase became so intolerably ubiquitous that entire comedy routines were made around it. But neither political leaders nor the press nor furrowed-brow academics nor editors of prestigious journals nor indeed “the American people” have seemed able to desist. All parties to . . . . Continue Reading »

Catholic and Evangelical?

From the October 1998 Print Edition

Systematic Theology: Volume 3 By Wolfhart Pannenberg, Translated by Geoffrey Bromiley Eerdmans. 713 pp. $49 Authors often await reviews with considerable anxiety, knowing that their work’s impact and survival much depend on them. We may not picture Wolfhart Pannenberg so awaiting this piece. . . . . Continue Reading »

The Ordinary Transformed

From the March 1996 Print Edition

The Ordinary Transformed: An Inquiry into the Christian Vision of Transcendence By R.R. Reno Eerdmans, 222 pages, $19 paper Professor Reno’s book can be taken, and could then be reviewed, in several ways. For a first possibility, it can be taken as a revisionist reading of the theology of Karl . . . . Continue Reading »

Parting Ways?

From the May 1995 Print Edition

Systematic Theology: Volume 2 By Wolfhart Pannenberg, Translated by Geoffrey Bromiley Eerdmans, 449 pages, $39.99 Whenever I am asked to comment on Wolfhart Pannenberg’s work, I begin with the same admonition: If we wish to understand any part or aspect of his thinking, we must always remember . . . . Continue Reading »