PROVERBS 19:5, 9 In this, the Proverb reiterates the threats of the Torah, which warns against false witness and false oaths (Leviticus 19:12; Deuteronomy 17:6-7). These two verses are almost identical. Both begin with “A false witness will not go unpunished,” and in the second line both use the phrase “breathe lies.” The end of verse 9 is stronger. Verse 5 warns that the false witness will “not escape,” but verse 9 says that he “will perish.” There is an... Read more
Rojek again: He claims that the story of celebrity over the past two centuries has been a shift from ascribed (hereditary) to attributed celebrity. Though some achieved international fame in earlier times, “they were always under strong pressures to conform to the established procedures and conventions set by the Court.” Ascribed celebrity swallowed up achieved celebrity. With the end of the Ancient Regime came an end of the dominance of hereditary privilege and celebrity, and a new kind of aristocracy:... Read more
In their book, Cool Rules , Dick Pountain and David Robins define cool as “a permanent state of private rebellion,” one which “conceals its rebellion behind an ironic impassivity.” Read more
Chris Rojek describes celebrity as “the attribution of glamorous or notorious status to an individual within the public sphere.” He recognizes there are other forms of celebrity: the “ascribed” celebrity of inherited status (Prince William, eg), and the “achieved” celebrity of an accomplished musician or writer or actor or sports figure. But attributed celebrity is a “cultural fabrication,” constructed by “cultural intermediaries who operate to stage-manage celebrity presence in the eyes of the public,” mediators such as “agents, publicists, marketing... Read more
Dogmatics, according to Barth (CD, I, 1), is the correction, clarification, and criticism of church proclamation by measuring proclamation against the Word of God in the Bible. Dogmatics is a second-order form of thought and reflection. It is not the same as the proclamation of the church; it is a kind of quality-control for church proclamation. The church goes about her business of proclaiming, and the theologian is there to make sure it remains faithful to the standard of proclamation:... Read more
I’ve read this paragraph from the introduction to Milbank’s Theology and Social Theory dozens of times, but it’s still thrilling. “The pathos of modern theology is its false humility. For theology, this must be a fatal disease, because once theology surrenders its claim to be a meta-discourse, it cannot any longer articulate the word of the creator God, but is bound to turn into the oracular voice of some finite idol, such as historical scholarship, humanist psychology, or transcendental philosophy.... Read more
I’ve read this paragraph from the introduction to Milbank’s Theology and Social Theory dozens of times, but it’s still thrilling. “The pathos of modern theology is its false humility. For theology, this must be a fatal disease, because once theology surrenders its claim to be a meta-discourse, it cannot any longer articulate the word of the creator God, but is bound to turn into the oracular voice of some finite idol, such as historical scholarship, humanist psychology, or transcendental philosophy.... Read more
If “we have never been modern,” why do we all say we have? Why do we say we’re living in an iron cage, that the world has been secularized and disenchanted, that religion has passed its sell-by date? Perhaps we just like to beat ourselves up. Or, perhaps the notion of “modernity” plays a protective role. For instance: (more…) Read more
If “we have never been modern,” why do we all say we have? Why do we say we’re living in an iron cage, that the world has been secularized and disenchanted, that religion has passed its sell-by date? Perhaps we just like to beat ourselves up. Or, perhaps the notion of “modernity” plays a protective role. For instance: (more…) Read more
Horst Breuer writes in a 1976 articles from the Modern Language Review : “Strange as this may seem to readers unaccustomed to this kind of historical perspective, Macbeth’s murder is a historically progressive act, an emancipation from feudalism and Catholicism, a violent plunge into the doubts and solitude of the New Age. Shakespeare, however, is clairvoyant enough to show that this liberation from medieval bondage may lead to an even more horrible kind of enslavement, namely to inhumanity and self-alienation.... Read more
Leithart
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