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Some years before he was my professor for Writers & Fundamentalisms and The Bible and Literary Theory, Dr. David Lyle Jeffrey warned us all:

The seventeenth century–no less than the second century or the twentieth century–abounds in examples of would-be faithful Christians who, lacking the sound hermeneutical basis which comes from apprenticeship to the historic understanding of the faith, combine a very high view of the Bible with extremely naive views of language, text, and (consciously or unconsciously) self-justifying motivations in the individual reader. The results in any time of this kind of epistemological cocktail include a free-wheeling entrepreneurial reading of the Bible–perilous at best, self-serving and, often enough, finally tyrannous at worst. In our own era it has certainly led to widespread confusion of Christianity with “the American way of life.”

Getting the Drift

Today I find my world in banking snow,
Accounting for this winter’s days, the cold
Within my heart, and costs still left untold
Until I settle down with one I owe.
In silent drifts I heap up all I know,
Accumulating here like Fafnir’s gold,
Sole hoard of things I’ve bought that never sold,
Investment in this winter’s window show.
In unrelenting ardor I confess
My love for silver moonlight and the days
Twice brightened, cloud and snowbank, and the haze
That spreads through world and mind at my address
To one who hears these secrets with a smile:
Who longs for spring, yet stays to talk a while.

PGE 2-6-2008

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
Jesus, John 16:33

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face–for ever.
(spoken by O’Brien; Orwell, 1984)

I believe Jesus Christ is God being a man, and was already God when the Father sent the Son, and the Spirit fertilized an egg of Mary’s; so that the Son has an actual human body both created in the image of God (as are we all) and genetically linked to his mother; to David; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to Noah; and to Adam.

from an extended discussion in quotations at my Baylor blog, a tiny snippet:

from our present via media—facilitation of divorce—can only result the era when the young lady in reduced circumstances will no longer turn governess but will be open to engagement as wife at a reasonable stipend. (Francis Thompson on Shelley)

(post title refers to a Tears For Fears song. you know if you know)