Ko-Ko, the Chief Dufflepud & Their Kin
There is a phenomenon I have come upon often in theological writing that needs a precise name, if someone hasn't given it one already. I encountered it most recently in a review whose writer criticized an author—a very learned and sophisticated theologian with pretensions to orthodoxy—of advocating a heresy. What the reviewer did is vicious but not uncommon, and might be called "teleological weighting," that is, identifying thought by where the critic thinks it must lead, rather than by what is actually expressed.
In my judgment, the reviewed author had not in fact committed the heresy of which he was accused, but the reviewer took certain of his statements as evidence of it because if the author continued to think along those lines, he would most certainly follow the logic (imposed on it by the reviewer) into heresy. So not committing heresy became, in the end (teleologically), tantamount to committing it. What had actually been written was weighted by the reviewer in accordance with where he thought it would take the author if he pursued it. Thus, the review was in fact an exercise in false
witness.
The Elemental Dishonesty of Kokoism
Now, the reviewer might have been right in his conclusions about where the author's trajectory would eventually take his reader. But if so, that is all the critic could say (which would seem rather pointless), since the line between orthodoxy and heterodoxy—which customarily involves an at least de facto denial of something that orthodoxy affirms, such as Arianism affirming the humanity of Christ while denying his deity—had not in fact been crossed. It is good that readers be warned against sly theologians (and they are legion) who write tendentiously with the deliberate intent to provoke the orthodox and encourage heterodoxy. I have read some very long books that were in sum a reason to disbelieve something to which Christians ought to hold, their error subtly obscured by their length and complexity.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.
• Not a subscriber or wish to renew your subscription? Subscribe to Touchstone today for full online access. Over 30 years of publishing!
personal subscriptions
Purchase Print &
Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives including pdf downloads for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
gift subscriptions
GIVE Print &
Online Subscription
Give six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for the reduced rate of $29.95. That's only $2.50 per month!
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
kindle subscription
OR get a subscription to Touchstone to read on your Kindle for only $1.99 per month! (This option is KINDLE ONLY and does not include either print or online.)
Your subscription goes a long way to ensure that Touchstone is able to continue its mission of publishing quality Christian articles and commentary.
more on culture from the online archives
19.4—May 2006
The Culture War Is Between Religious Believers on Both Sides by Howard P. Kainz
32.6—November/December 2019
Historical Truth, Beguiling Stories & Three Kinds of Hearers by Anthony Esolen
30.6—Nov/Dec 2017
Christ, Individualism & the Meaning of Cultural Diversity by Anthony Esolen
more from the online archives
29.5—Sept/Oct 2016
on the Loss of True Community & Rising Political Desperation by Karl D. Stephan
29.3—May/June 2016
Our Choice Is Obedience or Jesus as Anti-Christ by Anthony Esolen
33.2—March/April 2020
Lewis, Chesterton, et al. Against the Frauds, Experts & Revisionists by Vigen Guroian
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
