Letters from the Perilous Realm
“To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.” ~ Michael Oakeshott, On Being Conservative
[The only dichotomy I might take issue with is "fact to mystery."]
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If your theology causes you to think you’ve got it all wrapped up and well-understood, it’s bad theology. Theology should produce wonder. Not that theology should be hard to understand, abstract, unclear, or embrace a false humility that claims we can’t possibly know anything. Theology is as clear and easy to understand as sheep, water, bread, fig trees, and vineyards.
And it produces wonder.
The fact that we don’t think these things are filled with wonder demonstrates just how far we have gotten off the path of the truth. [click to continue…]
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