I’ve published a short, spiritual book about achieving peace in a restless world. See Synopsis for The Peace of Christ for information or go directly to the publisher’s order page, The Peace of Christ. The book should appear on major internet bookseller sites before long.
I’ll start by asking two seemingly strange questions: Should we expect Heaven, the world of the resurrected, to be a magical world as in pagan myths of other worlds? Should we expect to spend time without end gallivanting around with all sorts of strange winged creatures and looking down into the Abyss of Hell — … [Read more…]
I have posted an article on my other blog, Thoughts…, which gives my initial impressions upon reading the first 200 pages, of 500, of Kazantzakis’ controversial novel. I claim that novel misses the mark somewhat but it’s not as much in conflict with Christian orthodoxy as the writings of theologians and philosophers in the Calvinist … [Read more…]
I seem to have spoken of Creation is two ways. There’s no real inconsistency but I was confused myself for a while a few days ago. In my most recent posting, What is Mind?: Part 4. What Does God Know?, I spoke as if the Primordial Universe, the stuff underlying all of Creation, is analogous … [Read more…]
Obviously God knows all. Perhaps the real question is: “What is there to be known?” But the questions are the same at a very fundamental level. What God knows is what there is to know and what there is to know is known by God. First, if things are true, that is — if Creation … [Read more…]
Reductionism is often seen as explaining something away and, unfortunately, that’s often the goal of those doing the reducing. This isn’t a new development in modern thought. When St. Augustine explained the mind in terms of three components — intellect, memory, and will — he was reducing a complex entity to three components he felt … [Read more…]
I’ve argued that moral reasoning has the nature of narrative, a story, rather than being reasoning about axiomatic principles. This is certainly the most reasonable standard for Christians who accept the reality of the Incarnation. The Son of God didn’t come in glory carrying books on systematic theology and other supporting works in logic and … [Read more…]
What’s it like to be a bat? That question was a matter of debate in certain philosophical circles a decade or two ago. I read a some contributions to that debate and remember at first feeling sympathy for the arguments of those who were considered champions of the mind as something that is independent of … [Read more…]
We know Christ redeemed us, but what does that mean? The usual answer is: Christ paid for our sins on the cross including our original sin. A gruesome scene arises in the imagination of Christ being tormented by every sin I ever committed but most of all by the original sin we’re all said to … [Read more…]
[Part 4: Continuation of my comments upon reading Barth’s “The Epistle to the Romans”, Oxford University paperback, 1968] On page 437, Barth claims: “As an act of thinking [thinking of eternity] it dissolves itself; it participates in the pure thought of God, and is therefore an accepted sacrifice, living, holy, acceptable to God.” Barth — … [Read more…]