Gregg Ten Elshof’s* recent book I Told Me So, which examines the role self-deception plays in the church and in our lives, suffers from an inherent marketing disadvantage. Recommending it to friends, colleagues, or other non-anonymous individuals carries with it the risk of creating enormously awkward situations: “But what precisely did you mean by buying [...]
Archive for August, 2009
August 31, 2009
3
I Told Me So: Self Deception in the Life of the Christian
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Reviews (Books)
August 28, 2009
0
The Limits of Imagination: Health Care at First Things
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Uncategorized“Last week, Joe Carter praised The Atlantic’s forthcoming (mammoth) article on health care as “one of the most sensible and pragmatic articles on the health care debate you’re likely to ever read.” I couldn’t agree more. Goldhill’s analysis is even-handed and thorough. But what struck me most was his solution…” That’s how the article begins, [...]
August 27, 2009
2
Political Fruit: Christendom in Proper Perspective
By Matthew Lee Anderson in UncategorizedAs I mentioned in my response to Christianity Today, one of the central failures of our discussion about Christendom was our conflation of the political and cultural aspects of Christendom. This is, in many ways, understandable. The political and the culture have a complex relationship, and drawing a clear line between them makes me suspicious that [...]
August 26, 2009
2
C.S. Lewis was True to Himself
By Jeremy Mann in Christianity and Culture, Life in general, Literature, NarniaIn 1954, C.S. Lewis was asked by the Milton Society of America to comment on his own life’s work. In his statement, Lewis insists that the explanation for such a span of genres, topics, and formats is found in the development of his own personality: The imaginative man in me is older, more continuously operative, [...]
August 25, 2009
4
Clarifying “Christendom”: A Brief Response to Christianity Today
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Outside Articles of InterestI am honored and humbled that Christianity Today’s Collin Hansen penned a synopsis of our discussion about evangelicalism at The City. Hansen knows young evangelicals as well as anyone–his thorough and detailed treatment of the young Reformed left little more to be said, which was largely the reason why I left that specific demographic aside. [...]
August 24, 2009
0
Trading Culture Wars for Culture: Milliner on Conservative Cultural (non)Engagement
By Matthew Lee Anderson in UncategorizedMatthew Milliner’s recent article for Public Discourse is a triumph that had me shouting ‘yes’ all the way through. As a young conservative who remains hopeful that conservatism offers something deeper than tax cuts or strong defense, I found Milliner’s piece to be gratifyingly refreshing. His is a conservatism that ends—or rather, starts—with culture, which [...]
August 18, 2009
3
Blessed Disillusionment: Bonhoeffer on Community
By Jeremy Mann in People and Relationships, Theology (Christian Life)German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) wrote a book that had the alternative title How to Philosophize With a Hammer. I’m reminded of this when I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who could have just as easily written a book with the alternative title How to Theologize with a Pneumatic Drill. Maybe it has to do with being [...]
August 17, 2009
32
What Marriage is For: Robert George’s Latest in the Ongoing Conversation
By Matthew Lee Anderson in People and RelationshipsIn my recent reflections on the question of legalizing homosexual marriage, it has become clear that the disagreements between those who oppose it and those who are in favor of it are grounded upon competing anthropologies. For defenders of traditional marriage, the human person, his sexuality, and his body are inextricably related, and any attempt [...]
August 13, 2009
0
Meet the New Guy: Jeremy Mann Joins Mere-O
By Matthew Lee Anderson in UncategorizedDuring my time blogging, I’ve had the opportunity to build up a small but loyal audience (yup, that’s you). Over time, we’ve had other contributors come and go. We went through a phase where a number of contributors left, paring us down to just three writers who wrote with varying degrees of frequency, and now [...]
August 13, 2009
2
99 and 1
By Jeremy Mann in EducationHi, I’m a new contributor to Mere O. I understand you (“the reader”? How formal are we here?) have a civil but guarded relationship with new contributors, I get that. I’ll do my best to win you over. As a start, read the following to get an idea of how I spend my days and [...]
August 11, 2009
3
Killing–Literally–the Sacred Young Evangelical Cows
By Matthew Lee Anderson in PoliticsIf there is a leftward shift in young (urban, white, college-educated) evangelicalism, perhaps one of the most prominent signs is our disposition toward food. It is common among hipster evangelicals to hear conversations about ‘sustainable farming,’ free range meat, and organic vegetables. We are the Trader Joes demographic, until we leave it for the greener [...]
August 10, 2009
2
The City: Available Online Now
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Outside Articles of InterestThe latest issue of The City has been posted in full online, and in rather nifty format. For people interested, it features responses to my article on the new evangelical scandal by Francis Beckwith and Dr. John Mark Reynolds. Both essays are worth reading, and left me in the unenviable position of having to respond to [...]
August 7, 2009
7
The Politicization of Marriage: Nussbaum, George, and Rowe on the Gay Marriage Question
By Matthew Lee Anderson in People and RelationshipsMartha Nussbaum’s recent defense of homosexual marriage in Dissent Magazine is one of the better defenses of homosexual marriage that I have read, and I suggest slogging through the whole thing. But it is, perhaps, most valuable for revealing that the debate turns upon whether marriage is fundamentally constituted by the volitional agreement of two [...]