Via James K.A. Smith in this post on his blog In a shift of historic importance, America’s colleges and universities have largely abandoned the idea that life’s most important question is an appropriate subject for the classroom. In doing so, they have betrayed their students by depriving them of the chance to explore it in an organized way, before they Continue Reading
My previous post has me thinking a bit about Gore’s latest book, and how , thus far, about 1/3 of the way through, he trumpets the “Attack on Reason” as if “reason” had some “pure” location or is somehow exempt from subjectivity. The book is interesting in its discussion of how the media and propaganda masquerade as “common sense” or enable groups to associate Continue Reading
Excellent stuff on the recognition of truth and revelation …..we cannot respond by arguing that any sort of irrefutable sign, or pure event, has occurred. If the advent and the resurrection of the Son of God was open to manipulation and interpretation even during Jesus’ lifetime then we cannot claim revelation as the sort of universally binding pure event for which Continue Reading
Darn it! My mail notification for comments is not working again! (update: well, yeah it did work. What happened was that my Outlook at work checks two of my home mail accounts and removes them from the server, so my home Outlook didn’t store it. I see the notification in my Outllook account at work under that folder into which Continue Reading
An absolutely charged up podcast from NPR features Christopher Hitchens , along with guests Stephan Munsey and Bill Leonard (my Church History II prof way back in 1979). I can see the qualities that James K.A. Smith finds attractive in listening to Hitchens. I may yet decide to get the audio book of God is Not Great (I can get Continue Reading
Eric tagged me, along with Rusty, Charlie, and Kaz, all of whom I just met at Kansas City. So I’ll be working on that in just a few minutes. But , what a great time at KC! Lots to mull over and I bought several good books. Link to Eric’s Tasty Morsels of Thought – When all else fails, Meme Continue Reading
Pretty well written article by Gary Wolf in WIRED magazine. He takes the athiests to task in a few places, although I don’t agree with some of his assessments. Still, a good read. Good summary and interviews of these “prominent athiests”. Wolf says these guys could be called “evangelistic athiests”, since they propose not tolerance, but rejection of religion. Source: Continue Reading
Anthony has posted a positively stunning appraisal of the “modern narrative of race” he notices as having grown up around and inside Christendom the church and postmodern culture: conversation: The Panopticon of Ecclesial White-ness: Taking Foucault to a Church divided When one studies the history of Christendom, especially during the 16th century, a modern narrative of race emerges. In particular, Continue Reading
After my question yesterday about seeing no theologians on the list of readings, I see this today on beliefnet: Bill Moyers: Faith & Reason — Beliefnet.com Why did you decide to just interview writers, rather than speaking to theologians, pastors, etc.? I was looking for a fresh take. There\’s a spasm of fundamentalism in the world right now, and fundamentalism Continue Reading
I haven’t heard of the people on the “Reading List” for the Faith and Reason series, so I am skeptical as to whether or not there will be anythign from anybody in Christian theology who will have a “church-centered” approach; in other words, an emphasis upon the “formative” role of the church as a “People of God”. Rushdie was interesting, Continue Reading
It’s not that I’m suspicious of reason per se. It’s the use of it as the “alternative” or the “balance” to faith. This conceptualization of reason lends itself to underwriting whatever the prevailing wisdom of the day happens to be, or the “assumptions” of a particular culture. Reason is thus , in this scenario, a “neccessary correction” or “limiting” of Continue Reading
Here is an excerpt from Moyer’s opening intro to the series broadcast Friday night: Our world seems mightily divided right now between the religious and the secular – and even between the faiths which share the heritage of Abraham. Yet I’ll wager that most of us don’t live such polarized, one-sided lives. The people I know seem to move back Continue Reading