What’s Wrong with the World

The men signed of the cross of Christ go gaily in the dark.

About

What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

« November 2019 | Main | January 2020 »

December 2019 Archives

December 7, 2019

Keeping clear about "transferral" and centurions

This post is about various possible interpretations of the episode of the centurion and his servant, narrated in Luke 7 and Matthew 8.

When we think about the Gospels or any historical account, or even about daily speech, we need to make careful distinctions. Unfortunately, careful distinctions are not always a hallmark of modern biblical scholarship. One place where such a distinction is not consistently made is between fact-changing “transferral” and non-fact-changing “transferral.”

If I say, “I’m building a house,” anyone who knew even a small amount about both me and current American culture would immediately know that I am not personally building the house with a hammer and nails. They would know, from my situation, that I’m hiring someone else to build it. This is obviously non-fact-changing “transferral”--I’m referring to myself as building the house while commissioning it, knowing that everyone will understand.

Continue reading "Keeping clear about "transferral" and centurions" »

December 10, 2019

The Mirror or the Mask is now fully available!

It's here!

The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels From Literary Devices is now fully available. Here is the link to the page of my publisher, DeWard Publishing, with fulfillment through Amazon.

Please do share this information to your social media accounts if you have them. You can follow me on Facebook and share from there as well.

With blurbs by John Warwick Montgomery, J. P. Moreland, Peter J. Williams, Craig Blomberg, Jack Collins, Jonathan McLatchie, Tom Gilson, Paul Nelson, and more!

December 12, 2019

Late autumn Longreads

Christoper Caldwell’s Claremont Review of Books essay on the Brexit drama, while by now somewhat dated, still rewards an attentive read. The general trend of his argument will strike many readers as familiar, but to this he adds a number of penetrating insights with wider application.

An excerpt in The Atlantic of Jack Goldsmith’s new book In Hoffa’s Shadow, rivets the attention and raises numerous fascinating questions. Goldsmith worked as a government lawyer in the GWB administration, and, finding himself thrust into the feverish debates over detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects after September 11th, to say no more made a bit of a name for himself. He also has a family connection to the vanished labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, by which connection he interweaves a related discussion of law enforcement challenges and excesses. Perhaps most fascinating is his analysis of how often legislative efforts, originally designed to check law enforcement excesses, end up producing contrary effects.

Meanwhile, I haven’t read an interview comparable to this in many a long year -- if indeed I’ve ever read one. David Samuels, Literary Editor at Tablet magazine, trades banter, anecdote, analysis and wisdom with Angelo Codevilla, the multi-talented scholar, farmer, polemicist, former Hill staffer and foreign service officer. A reader who could agree with every provocation and insinuation propounded by these two lively men, is a reader rather more comfortable with contradiction than most. Still, an interview better contrived to amuse, uplift and edify strikes me as difficult to imagine.

Finally, the story of the late-20th century US versus Anglo-French commercial race for an economically viable supersonic airliner is not, perhaps, one that immediately perks up the ears of interest. But I can assure you that, on the evidence of this article in Air Power History (scroll down in this PDF to page 5), in this case those unperked ears of interest will have let the reader down. The story amounts to an inherently absorbing one, with lessons and revelations to spare.

(Hat tip to Jack Baruth of Riverside Green for that last link.)

December 24, 2019

O Night Divine

nativity_2.jpg

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” (Mt. 1:20)

One of the happier trends among Roman Catholics in recent years has been a deliberate recovery of the traditions of Advent, which attract increasing commentary and reflection with every passing year. Christmastide itself is, it has to be said, burdened by very high expectations that in this era of constant plenty are difficult to satisfy. Compared with the simple joy and serenity of the Nativity, Advent recalls a tale of great peril, revelation, even adventure. It is a story of spiritual combat and historical rupture on the grandest scale, and so it is well that Christians in this time of seemingly apocalyptic darkness are drawn to ever-closer study of its central characters, and to the remembrance of that virtue that each of them has in common: Courage, that disdain of the fallen world which comes from Faith.

Continue reading "O Night Divine" »