In the introduction to his book, "What Is Faith?" J. Gresham Machen (writing in the 1920's) comments on the prevailing disdain for "the intellectual aspect of the religious life." And in words that seem extremely relevant to the postmodern mood today, he goes on to say...
"...Indeed nothing makes a man more unpopular in the controversies of the present day than an insistence upon definition of terms. Anything, it seems, may be forgiven more readily than that.
"Men discourse very eloquently today upon such subjects as God, religion, Christianity, atonement, redemption, faith; but they are greatly incensed when they are asked to tell in simple language what they mean by these terms.
"They do not like to have the flow of their eloquence checked by so vulgar a thing as a definition...."
(Exactly.)
-- "What Is Faith?" by J. Gresham Machen (Banner of Truth Trust 1991, pp.13-14)
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