The sense of all stylistic change is that the underlying view of the world changes.

We need to understand enough of modern thought to identify the ways it blocks us from living out the Gospel the way God intends, both in terms of intellectual roadblocks and in terms of economic and structural changes that make it harder to live by Scriptural principles.

Can reason be an idol? Certainly. The philosophy of rationalism puts human reason in the place of God as the source and standard of all truth.

Many journalists are influenced by a myopic multiculturalism that is suspicious of anything Western, while giving the benefit of the doubt to non-Western societies.

The best organizations regard the nurturing of their employees as a spiritual mandate.

To adapt a phrase, idols have consequences.

But things that are intrinsically good can also become idols-if we allow them to take over any of God's functions in our lives.