God of Abraham?

Is God the God of Abraham? It seems impossible: How could “of Abraham” be a description of God if Abraham’s existence is contingent (as it certainly is)? Should we then say that God is not essentially the God of Abraham but only voluntarily so? That solution doesn’t satisfy . . . . Continue Reading »

Ideal religion

Harrison ( ‘Religion’ and the Religions in the English Enlightenment , 12-13) argues that the Platonic revival of the Renaissance was one of the key sources for the modern notion of “religion.” The point is clearest in Ficino: “In De Christiana Religione (1474), he . . . . Continue Reading »

Paganopapism

Peter Harrison argues in his ‘Religion’ and the Religions in the English Enlightenment (9) that the Reformation contributed massively to the development of a new notion of “religion,” especially in the ways Protestants and Catholics redesigned arguments formerly used against . . . . Continue Reading »

Price of Lobster in Boston

Lobster, writes James Surowiecki in The New Yorker , was not always a luxury item. On the contrary: “In Colonial New England, it was a low-class food, in part because it was so abundant: servants, as a condition of their employment, insisted on not being fed lobster more than three times a . . . . Continue Reading »

A Stairway isn’t just a Stairway

In the course of a TNR meditation on the enduring popularity of Alfred Hitchcock, David Thomson comments on Hitchcock’s fascinations: “he loved Mount Rushmore in the moonlight, and a semi-desert prairie with crops where no crops would grow, and all those staircases on which ordeals are . . . . Continue Reading »

Government and innovation

Americans think of ourselves as entrepreneurs, innovators, and self-starters. That description fits plenty of American businessmen, but in the world we inhabit many technological advances that fuel mega-sized companies started in government programs. John Judis makes this point concisely in a . . . . Continue Reading »

Believe it

Thanks to my son Christian, I believe the impossible. I believe in upsalite, the super-absorbent material recently discovered accidentally by researchers at the University of Uppsala. According to the Guardian report : “Unless you work in Uppsala University, Sweden, where accidentally leaving . . . . Continue Reading »

Grave in Moab

Moses died in Moab, on the east side of the Jordan, and was buried there in an unmarked and unknown grave (Deuteronomy 34:5-6). This, Yahweh says, is Moses being “gathered to your people” (Deuteronomy 32:50). Several things are remarkable here: First, that an ancient man should be . . . . Continue Reading »