I’m trying to tighten the focus of some of my own ideas in the area of religion and society, religion and government, religion and any other form of human community. There are probably many things to be said about the conflict between religion and various sorts of religious societies, and some also cover conflicts involving … [Read more…]
Love is probably undefinable but we can at least understand some aspects of that love and can probably come to a substantial narrative understanding of some loves in their specific contexts. We can maybe even understand some of the ways in which a truer and incorruptible love will make the world of the resurrected, heaven, … [Read more…]
Let me state a certain political position as: The United States of America are but Massachusetts is. This is a grammatical statement of the classic States’ rights doctrine which was one of the matters so violently dealt with in the American war between the states. It was, in fact, a matter of contention from the … [Read more…]
I’ve started rereading Science and Creation by John Polkinghorne, the physicist at Cambridge University who left his professorship to enter an Anglican seminary before returning to Cambridge as a chaplain and administrator. Father Polkinghorne is quite polite to those who denigrate natural theology and to those who simply question what natural theology can really tell … [Read more…]
See Astronomers Reveal a Cosmic ‘Axis of Evil’ to learn: Astronomers are puzzled by the announcement that the masses of the largest objects in the universe appear to depend on which method is used to weigh them. … Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe containing thousands of galaxies like … [Read more…]
Flannery O’Connor was a devout Catholic Christian who no mercy on those who preached what she once labeled “Pious Crap.” Sometimes, that might even mean poking fun at the ways in which a truth is held or rejected. One truth she clearly held is: The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. She wrote … [Read more…]
Relationships of a more abstract sort, such as those in politics and economics, are not so much different from concrete relationships as we might think. Not so much different as we’ve led ourselves to believe. Those concrete entities which are more complex, such as a man or a rhinoceros, are made of substances which have … [Read more…]
In a recent newsletter, (Letter #50, 2010/09/24, see Inside the Vatican magazine), Dr. Robert Moynihan, a journalist covering the ‘Vatican beat’, discusses a recent meeting in Vienna of high-level church officials from the Catholic and Orthodox churches. At least some of those officials are also theologians. It would seem good that there are serious movements … [Read more…]
Once the thought of Plato and Aristotle had a home — the Greek city-state. Once the thought of St. Paul and St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas had a home — Western Civilization. The two situations were different because the Greek philosophers struggled to find the best way to inhabit a home built by their … [Read more…]
Modern human beings, and especially Christians, might misunderstand the work I’m doing. Some might think I’m some sort of champion of modern empirical knowledge for its own sake, a fan of physics and history perhaps. In fact, what’s at issue is respect for God’s Creation and, hence, for the Creator Himself. You respect Creation by … [Read more…]