Often, the tendency is to call something “boring” and “slow” when we don’t understand it or lack the energy to make a stab at comprehension. But I think sometimes there are other forces at work as well: cynicism and pride. Cynicism makes us skeptical that there is meaning, truth, beauty and goodness out there worth…
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Art
In Defense of Slow
Often, the tendency is to call something “boring” and “slow” when we don’t understand it or lack the energy to make a stab at comprehension. But I think sometimes there are other forces at work as well: cynicism and pride. Cynicism makes us skeptical that there is meaning, truth, beauty and goodness out there worth…
Roman Peace (Pax Romana) = Peace Through Domination. Anyone Willing to Kill for Citzenship, Land and Wealth??
The early Christians were pacifists.¹ It was only in the second century did Christians become or remain soldiers. John Cadoux’s explanation for the Christian transition into militarism is of a slippery slope in moral ethics due to economic and political pressure. A major sociological shift had occurred after the second century to even allow Christian…
Reading Plato While Wearing a Walkman | Art by Matthew Rangel
You have argued that new technologies are a threat to the “silence” and “intimacy” necessary for an encounter with great works… Yes, the quality of silence is organically linked to the quality of language. You and I are sitting here, in this house surrounded by a garden, where there is no other noise other than…
I went to the woods because
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. –Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854) Watercolor painting by Fauve
July 4th, 2011: Happy St. Elizabeth of Portugal Day!!
Born in 1271, Queen Isabel was married to King Diniz (or Dinis). Like her great-aunt Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, for whom she was named, Saint Elizabeth of Portugal dedicated her life to the poor. She established orphanages and provided shelter for the homeless. She also founded a convent in Coimbra. Read more about Saint Elizabeth…
Karen Armstrong Believes That Religion and Art are Allies
Religion was never supposed to provide answers to questions that lay within the reach of human reason… Religion’s task, closely allied to that of art, was to help us to live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realities for which there were no easy explanations and problems that we could not solve; morality, pain, grief,…
Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved
Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved; also it is a little oblivious to morals. It dwells upon the tender elements of the world which slowly and in quietness operate by love. –Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 353 Painting by Mark Lawrence
The Secret That is Withheld
One of my favorite hybrid philosopher/theologians, John Caputo, has been on my mind lately. Mostly because he has been making the rounds on some of my favorite podcasts and has been the subject on some frequently read blogs. One case in point is this profound interview courtesy of Callid Keefe-Perry and HBC. After I listened…
Blest Be the Tie that Binds: A Sad Post
We share our mutual woes, Our mutual burdens bear, And often for each other flows The sympathizing tear. When here our pathways part, We suffer bitter pain; Yet, one in Christ and one in heart, We hope to meet again. This post is in memory of an honorable man who will be missed by many….