We've been speaking again about the importance of criticism. We find ourselves listening to noise where there used to be music and doggerel where there is still at least the memory of a hymn, and we've been talking about people who still don't know the difference.

And along comes someone to offer the perfect example. Here is John Wilson (Christianity Today's idea of a critic) talking about Iron and Wine performing at Wheaton College. (Wheaton College, you will recall, was Mark Noll's reason for hope for the Evangelical mind.)

There will always be some who can't quite explain the difference between Garlock and Townend. It is for them that the critic exists. The critic does not exist to make an artist's career happen, he serves as a priest standing between the artist and the audience. Let us see if John Wilson is making an honest wage. Read this.

So what has John told us here?

He dithers about some unspecified similarity to Dylan, the Decemberists, Puerto Muerto and Calexico. Something happened in his ear, nothing, apparently, in his head. Or nothing he could articulate. It's just a list of performers like a bunch of numbered ping pong balls tumbling in a Plexiglas drum. Who knows? Who cares? What difference does it make? It's just the sort of argute perception he'll find useful at a CT cocktail party.

It would seem the noteworthy fact of the evening was the singer's refusal to comply with a request Mr. Wilson didn't feel was appropriate anyway. Then there was the riveting explanation of how he listens with his eyes closed. That pretty much put the whole soirée into perspective.

There is nothing here of intellectual interest, nothing of musical interest, and nothing of interest to the imagination. It was all about an evening out with Gary, Kathy, Daniel and Veronica and without Wendy. It was about some vague complaint against God. It was about thunderous applause for no reason he could discern.

As for the life of the mind, it's as though nothing happened at all and a lot of people clapped afterwards.

John ends by saying he couldn't join in but that he would keep listening.

Which is about right: listening without hearing, hearing without understanding, and sharing without communicating. No wonder reality catches him off-balance.