Neuhaus versus Wright
July 4, 2008
`The bell and the can and the bodies on the floor.' So goes a line from Mark Knopfler's `Ode to Sonny Liston.' Well, two heavyweight bruisers of more recent vintage are engaged in a slugfest over at First Things: N T Wright and R J Neuhaus. It's fun to see Wright taking the `Hayek's economics equals biblical Christianity' brigade to task with his usual acerbic wit -- more power to his elbow!! -- but this is somewhat negated by the fact that, according to the Bishop, we can now add R J Neuhaus to the list of rather clever people apparently incapable of reading and understanding or reporting fairly anything written by NTW -- someone who seems, on the surface, to write delightfully elegant and clear prose, accessible to all. `Nobody understands me' and `You're all so unfair!!!' used to be the complaints of choice of teenagers. It seems that such claims have rather gone up in the world. Read the exchange here.