Isms

I thought I had coined the use of the term 'isms' to describe the limited kind of thinking that only sees in terms of camps and categories. But it turns out that C.S. Lewis used it back in 1946 in his introduction to 'George MacDonald: an Anthology'.

"I will attempt no historical or theological classification of MacDonald's thought, partly because I have not the learning to do so, still more because I am no great friend to such pigeonholing. One very effective way of silencing the voice of conscience is to impound in an Ism the teacher through whom it speaks: the trumpet no longer seriously dusturbs our rest when we have murmured 'Thomist,' 'Barthian,' or 'Existentialist'."