Comments on: The importance of being snobbish http://toliveischrist.info/2009/03/the-importance-of-being-snobbish/ for we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Christ’s sake. Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:43:49 -0800 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Tyler Chastang http://toliveischrist.info/2009/03/the-importance-of-being-snobbish/comment-page-1/#comment-282 Tyler Chastang Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:43:49 +0000 http://www.toliveischrist.info/?p=32#comment-282 Great post, would you mind if I linked to your fine words from a handful of UK focused blogs I run? Great post, would you mind if I linked to your fine words from a handful of UK focused blogs I run?

]]> By: admin http://toliveischrist.info/2009/03/the-importance-of-being-snobbish/comment-page-1/#comment-3 admin Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:02:14 +0000 http://www.toliveischrist.info/?p=32#comment-3 Hi Nathan. Thanks for providing some balance. I guess the only thing I would add is that my point was not that we should be admiring 'high culture' uncritically - rather the emphasis was (purely in terms of art, not morals) to avoid settling for low culture and regulating our own sensibilities to the lowest common denominator. As long as this continues, we should not be surprised by the fact that we have nothing to say... And interacting with someone like Oscar Wilde (the title of my post was actually an allusion to him!) I would say is more profitable than interacting with a fundamentalist Christian even who has never engaged with anything other than his or her own clique/subculture and ego - and I say this as a Christian. You don't have to agree with Wilde to admire him. Hi Nathan. Thanks for providing some balance. I guess the only thing I would add is that my point was not that we should be admiring ‘high culture’ uncritically – rather the emphasis was (purely in terms of art, not morals) to avoid settling for low culture and regulating our own sensibilities to the lowest common denominator. As long as this continues, we should not be surprised by the fact that we have nothing to say…

And interacting with someone like Oscar Wilde (the title of my post was actually an allusion to him!) I would say is more profitable than interacting with a fundamentalist Christian even who has never engaged with anything other than his or her own clique/subculture and ego – and I say this as a Christian.

You don’t have to agree with Wilde to admire him.

]]> By: Nathan Straub http://toliveischrist.info/2009/03/the-importance-of-being-snobbish/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Nathan Straub Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:00:52 +0000 http://www.toliveischrist.info/?p=32#comment-4 Hey Timothy, I just followed a link to your post from Kevin DeYoung's blog. I feel qualified to respond, since I'm right now studying to take the GRE test on English literature. I agree that there is a lot of mental and emotional delight that we cheat ourselves of by not choosing the best. That's really what snobbishness is, as you have described it. Howard Hendricks talks in "Teaching to Change Lives" about growing as a whole person in your mind, body, and spirit; if one area is shallow, the others will be stunted as well. On the other hand, great writers and thinkers battled or followed the same sins we and our Youtube culture do. Look at Oscar Wilde's apt self-portrait in "A Picture of Dorian Gray" or Ben Jonson's Conversations with William Drummond. What is more dangerous is if we look up to them and are deceived into admiring the sins and lies woven into their books and lives. So... be critical and judicious in high books as well as low books. Pick your heroes well. Hey Timothy,
I just followed a link to your post from Kevin DeYoung’s blog. I feel qualified to respond, since I’m right now studying to take the GRE test on English literature. I agree that there is a lot of mental and emotional delight that we cheat ourselves of by not choosing the best. That’s really what snobbishness is, as you have described it. Howard Hendricks talks in “Teaching to Change Lives” about growing as a whole person in your mind, body, and spirit; if one area is shallow, the others will be stunted as well.

On the other hand, great writers and thinkers battled or followed the same sins we and our Youtube culture do. Look at Oscar Wilde’s apt self-portrait in “A Picture of Dorian Gray” or Ben Jonson’s Conversations with William Drummond. What is more dangerous is if we look up to them and are deceived into admiring the sins and lies woven into their books and lives.

So… be critical and judicious in high books as well as low books. Pick your heroes well.

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