The Idol and the Icon

posted in: Philosophy 0

Marion, Jean-Luc. God Without Being. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991. I’ve finally been able to set the time apart to finish the first chapter of God Without Being of Jean-Luc Marion tonight. In this first chapter his focus is … Read More

Ninian Smart: Understanding Religious Experience

posted in: Mysticism 0

Smart, Ninian. “Understanding Religious Experience.” Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis. Ed. Steven T. Katz. New York, Oxford University Press, 1978. 10-21.

This is the first of a series of presentations on the book cited above; Prof. Smart’s is the opening essay in the book. Future essays will be presented as I can pull together time and focus. In this first I will not engage it personally, rather simply present the essay without comment.

Increase Our Faith!

posted in: Christian 0

This morning’s (well, yesterday’s by now) Gospel was Luke 17:5-10; click the link to read it in a new window. Talking about that through the day we found it perplexing. What is the causal relationship between faith and the self-effacing … Read More

On a Leash and Choke Collar

posted in: Bits and Pieces 0

Whether or not people will ever connect the dots that in our sumptuous lifestyle we have sold ourselves into slavery to others, and be willing to make some very hard decisions with personal impact, remains unknown. This is easy to blame on presidents and Congress; while they do control the fiscal policy, we ultimately hold them accountable, or not, for how they manage that.

Faith, Hope and Love

posted in: Christian 0

I recently found that the Italian national radio station is publishing some of its material in podcasts. Listening to one yesterday (Uomini e Profeti) on the evaluation of current actualities in the light of received traditions, (unfortunately no longer linked online) I heard a fascinating variant on the well known “faith, hope and love” themes of St. Paul’s concluding verse of I Corinthians 13.

Death Penalty Experiment

posted in: Christian 0

Regarding Christianity and the death penalty, I propose an experiment. Open a public microphone in every church in the US and invite anyone that feels convinced of its truth to state to the rest of the church this one unqualified sentence: “I have committed no sin worthy of death.”

Descartes and the Certainty of God

posted in: Philosophy 0

In Meditation V of the Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes considers a second argument for the existence of God. Descartes posits that the certainty of the existence of God should have “at least the same level of certainty” as the truths of mathematics.

La metafisica del sangue / Metaphysics of blood

posted in: Philosophy 0

La settimana scorsa mi venivano domande, pensieri, della metafisica del sangue. L’esempio specifico era quello del sangue d’Abele che gridava verso Dio dalla terra. Il sangue stesso è andato sempre più disperso, ma sia per Dio sia per la terra in qualche modo il sangue esisteva ancora in modo da poter “gridare”, ovvero testimonare, dell’avvenimento violente. Ma come e in che modo però, ecco la domanda.

Judging Angels

posted in: Christian 0

About three years ago, pondering I Cor. 6 about judging angels, over the space of a few days this is what I worked out. It was a curious process, one in which I distinctly felt that insight was being given to me that was not my own.

Culture, Truth and Community

posted in: Christian 0

One of my principal difficulties with the Church of Christ is in their normative hermeneutic of 1st century practice. By that I mean that the practices of the first century are to be continued without change as immutable Law of God, world without end, amen. This quickly devolves, and I think without much possibility of exception, into a rigid, legalistic quibble just as we see it today, as if propagation of the form will somehow reproduce the same results. It cannot possibly do so.

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