That biblical vision of a world-for-all did not come from our modern ideas of democratic power or our contemporary claims about human or civil rights. It did not come from liberalism, socialism, or communism. In recognizing its challenge we are not retrojecting any of that modernity back onto antiquity. A world-for-all came, if one needs…
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Art
Kings vs. bookish men, vowed to celibacy and destitute of armed force.
The king had to share his power with the feudal aristocracy, but all alike expected to be allowed occasional outbursts of passion in the form of war, murder, pillage, or rape. Monarchs might repent, for they were sincerely pious, and, after all, repentance itself was a form of passion. But the church could never produce…
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…
Much Fear and Trembling
What Luther discovered, which we too often hide from, is the theological and existential discovery that God is crucified, that the monster takes God, that death and separation destroy God. And this is not to be celebrated, but despaired. Just like Paul, we are in much fear and trembling. For Luther, like Nietzsche, God is…
In case you didn’t know, faith and reason are NOT in conflict. | Art by Jordan Kasey
Albert Einstein once famously stated that “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.” I for one agree with him completely. Religion and science, regardless of what you read about in the newspapers as it relates to these conflicts, can very much co-exist quite well. The above quote comes from Dr. Thomas Plante’s…
Daniel Pink Explains How to Kill Creativity
Solving model problems or creating something the world didn’t know it was missing relies heavily on Harlow’s third drive, a model he calls the Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity–which holds in part: intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity, controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity. This quote comes from Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising…
This is what it means to be a Christian, are there any questions?
We’re against all the death squads, the ruling families, the paramilitaries, the US military aid, the bombings, the violence of the rebels and the violence of hunger, starvation and disease. We’re against violence on all sides; and everyone on all sides hates us and wants to kill us. This is what it means to be…
The Cult of Achievement: Why EQ is Better Than IQ
Another problem with the cult of achievement is that it places so much emphasis on developing a child’s IQ that an equally crucial aspect is totally eclipsed–what psychologist Daniel Goleman, cofounder of the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning at the Yale University Child study Center, calls “EQ” in his groundbreaking book, Emotional Intelligence: Why…
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….
Is Space Really Empty?
So space can bend and drag; but is it really empty? Don’t say there’s nothing there to a physicist. Space has a seething quantum structure to it. I like to think of it as a pot of water on the stove with bubbles coming out. Space is like that. It’s always bubbling. We could see…