An eye for an eye. God is dead. Fear and trembling.
Does an author deserve to be understood in context? Perhaps.
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Was Jesus on fire for God? Probably, but Renaissance artists never got the memo. The typical Renaissance Christ looks bored and burned out, not like someone who is ready to start a Bible study, lead worship, or stand up for his faith. At very least, I commonly field such concerns when teaching art history.
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There are two kinds of demons. Nearly everyone is familiar with the first kind. Almost no one is familiar with the second kind.
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Why study the past? Be careful about asking your students this question too early in the morning, for the answer might make you morose all day. Even at a classical school, someone will probably reply, “Because those who don’t study the past are condemned to repeat it,” and at least half the class will nod sagely. Even a few members of the faculty—at a classical school, nonetheless— are likely to give an appreciative murmur.
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I know what is meant by “spiritual growth,” but I think the expression quite dangerous.
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Over the last 30 years, the revitalization of classical Christian education in this country has largely been the work of Reformed Christians and Presbyterian Christians. The work of the revitalization has been shared among other denominations and traditions, of course, and it is not my intention to slight anyone, but to give credit where it is due: if the revitalization is a work in which all Christian traditions should take part, the Reformed have done more than their fare share.
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Any debate about the merit of It’s A Wonderful Life is, by this point, largely superfluous. While there is no cinematic equivalent of Homer, if there were, it would be Capra’s 1946 Christmas classic. 72 years is a long time for a pop culture artifact to last. Consider for a moment that the best-selling book of 1946 was Frederic Wakeman’s The Hucksters, and that title has never been reprinted. First editions currently sell on Amazon for about a dollar.
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A child has very few rights to demand of his mother and father, but a child does have the right of custom: it is fair that a child claim the same treatment today which he received yesterday, provided there are not extenuating circumstances. It is not right that a parent arbitrarily revoke this or that custom which has hitherto governed the home. If a child is accustomed to hearing a story before bed, his father cannot withhold a story for no good reason, or for specious reasons.
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As a little child, I unreservedly loved Christmas, but about the time I entered high school, I often found myself depressed around the end of the year. Christmas break means far more free time than usual, and Idaho winters were typically harsh and bleak, which meant I usually spent that free time indoors, where there was little to inhibit endless self-reflection.
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Come senior year, students ought to be reading the best books in the curriculum. Having arrived at the height of their intellectual powers, at least so far as high school is concerned, students should be diving into the books which will do them the most good over the spiritually disorienting four years which follow. Senior year, they ought to be reading Homer and Virgil, Milton, Plato, Dante, Augustine. Let us admit that there are classics and there are classics.
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