There has been some coverage about the ‘forgiveness’ offered to Dylann Roof by some of the Christian parishioners of Emanuel AME church that survived his attack. Matt Schiavenza in the The Atlantic describes this. [For some other responses as to why […]
Christianity
‘Freedom From Speech’ and Freedom From Other Things
“Freedom of speech” has been a slogan in America and the Western World for some time. But how to explain the rise of “political correctness,” which has not much affected our civil law, but has affected policies on campus, and, […]
The Upper Middle Class Versus the 1%?
Matt Miller, Californian commentator, comments in his book The Tyranny of Dead Ideas that it probably will be the upper middle class, or ‘lower upper’ as he calls it, that will lead the opposition to the so called 1%, and […]
C.S. Lewis and the World of Modern Technology
C.S. Lewis, in his important apologetic work The Problem of Pain, tried to envision an alternative pain-free universe [Chapter 2]: The permanent nature of wood which enables us to use it as a beam also enables us to use it […]
The Strange American Inversion of the Liturgical Year
Historically in Christian liturgy, Advent was supposed to be a sort of penitential time, a little Lent leading up to Christmas, as Lent led up to Easter. Anglican hymnbooks have an Advent section and a Christmas section. Songs like “O […]
Hasn’t it Always Been Babylon?
Rod Dreher, one of our favorites on this site, has written a column called “From Israel to Babylon” of which the sources are largely drawn from the Southern Baptists. The younger Southern Baptists expect to be a religious minority, which, […]
Amusement and Awe: John Muir and Walt Disney
In a recent issue of Orange Coast magazine, Bob Sipchen of the Sierra Club contrasts John Muir, the naturalist, and Walt Disney: Walt Disney, who also shares a place in California’s Hall of Fame, appreciated the natural world Muir loved, […]
Art Epiphany, Part II: the Millennium Bridge
I write this, and the previous post, from London. One of the newer features of the city, finished in 2000 [opened for two days, shut down for repairs, and reopened in 2002], is a pedestrian bridge called Millennium Bridge. It […]
Some Bleats About the ‘Common Good’
James Davidson Hunter is doing commendable work trying to restore the interest, of Christians especially, in the ‘common good.’ Not a bad thing, but first we have to think about what the ‘common good’ is. 1. First of all, we […]
Am I an Occasionalist? Christian Philosophy Critiques Intelligent Design
First Things is a magazine I like and find interesting. Just recently they have come out with a criticism of Intelligent Design by philosopher-scientist Stephen Meredith of the University of Chicago. He charges that Intelligent Design assumes the philosophy of […]