The Knight and The Gardener

Falwell said this on Pat Robertson’s television program The 700 Club two days after the 9/11 attacks on September 13, 2001. The full text can be found at www.beliefnet.com/story/87/story_8770_1.html. He apologized the next day. His apology can be found http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/14/Falwell.apology/index.html. John Perry Barlow used the term “pronoia” in this manner first in Wired’s May 1994 issue in the article “Zippie!” which can be found at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.05/zippies.html.

I’m being snarky about the Taliban here, but see “Execution By Taliban: Crushed Under a Wall,” New York Times, January 16, 1999, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E4D81E31F935A25752C0A96F958260.

Joseph Campbell discusses these four functions of religion in Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (New World Library, 2001, p. 2-5) but describing those functions as light bulbs is my own.

Bernard Loomer’s “mystery” line can be found in Reality Isn’t What It Used to Be: Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic and Other Wonders of the Postmodern World by Walter Truett Anderson (HarperCollins, 1992), p. 210-211.

This section is my plain-language explanation of several themes from postmodern philosophy and theology. A very good, clear introduction to postmodernism as a philosophical orientation is Walter Truett Anderson’s The Truth About the Truth: De-confusing and Re-constructing the Postmodern World (Tarcher Putnam, 1995).

The exoteric and esoteric distinction is drawn in Reality Isn’t What It Used to Be: Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic and Other Wonders of the Postmodern World by Walter Truett Anderson (HarperCollins, 1992), p. 212-227.

Bart Ehrman tells his story in his introduction to Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005). The Mohammed Atta and Miss Piggy story can be found in The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It (Hyperion, 2002) by John Miller, Michael Stone and Chris Mitchell. The stories about Walker Percy are from Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy (University of North Carolina Press, 1992) by Jay Tolson. The ‘iconoclasm leads to nihilism’ bit is from Walter Truett Anderson’s essay “Four Different Ways to Be Absolutely Right” in The Truth About the Truth.

“How to Tell a True War Story” can be found in Tim O’Brien’s collection of short stories The Things They Carried (Bantam, 1999).

These are my roots as an evangelical Christian showing. Evangelical Christian churches refer to a person as “born again” when he or she has made a decision—as a mature, self-determining adult—to become a Christian. This decision often is due to—or sparks—transformation in a person for the better.

Three good books on U2 and the themes in their music are Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 by Steve Stockman (Relevant Books, 2005), Into the Heart: The Stories Behind Every U2 Song by Niall Stokes (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005), and U2 at the End of the World by Bill Flanagan (Delta, 1996). The “finger pointing toward the moon” line is from the 17^th century samurai-poet Masahide.

Another test to make sure the sticky post (with the content of the book) stays on top.