The Intoxicating Wine of the Gospel

...In response to this divine miracle of astonishment, man has produced an almost equally astonishing miracle. As Jesus turned water into wine, we have turned wine back into water, turned the intoxicating wine of the gospel into a mushy grape jelly. He came to light a fire, and we have found a way to water it down. He came to shock us, and we have channeled the shock through lightning rods called churches, or rather churchiness. He came to spread his good infection, and we have found antidotes. As the antidote for smallpox is cowpox, as the antidote for a strong infection is a weak infection of the same germs, a weak infection that elicits antibodies to fight the strong infection, so the antidote for potent religion is pallid religion; the antidote for Christ is ‘Christian stuff.’ The antidote for his noun is our adjective.

No book is more fascinating than the bible. And no books are less fascinating than our books about the bible... Christ’s words roused his enemies to murder and his friends to martyrdom. Our words reassure both sides and send them to sleep. He put the world in a daze, we put it in a doze. ~Peter Kreeft, in Envoy Magazine, Jan-Feb. 2008