Status Updates From Eat This Book: A Conversati...

On biblical metaphors (p. 94): “A metaphor is literally a lie. A metaphor states as true something that is literally not true. For instance, ‘God is a rock,’ a frequent Hebrew assertion about God (Ps. 18:2, 31). If we take the sentence literally, instead of going to church on Sunday mornings to worship we will visit the local stone quarry and shop for a god rock that we can erect in our backyard.”

Already I'm wondering where this book has been all my life.

“Heightened emotional states are very attractive, particularly to adolescents. There is such a thrilling sense of immediacy to it; it feels so, well, authentic, so alive. The generic designation ‘enthusiasm’ has been attached to this way of the soul that has attracted and continues to attract so many off on detours of self-gratification and into addictive cul de sacs.”