Human life is shot through with envy. Envy whispers in our ear about a neighbor who has slightly more than we do –a nicer car, more recognition, a prettier wife, more accomplished children. Envy wants to silence praise for others and grows angry when praise continues (Nietzsche). Enslaved to . . . . Continue Reading »
The Cambridge Alumni magazine this month has an interview with Professor Simon Conway Morris hos is proposing what the articles describes as a “radical rewriting” of evolution. His theory is that convergence - “the tendency of very different organisms to evolve similar solutions . . . . Continue Reading »
Some musings on God’s worldliness at http://www.firstthings.com/ this morning. . . . . Continue Reading »
The Lover calls his bride his “darling” (Song of Songs 1:9, NASB). The Hebrew is ra’yah , and this is the first use of the word. Of the 10 uses in the Hebrew Bible, nine are in the Song and always the Lover’s term of endearment for his Beloved (1:15; 2:2, 10, 13; 4:1, 7; . . . . Continue Reading »
Solomon’s first wife was an Egyptian princess (1 Kings 3:1). She was Solomon’s mare among the chariots of Egypt (Song of Songs 1:9). We can imagine Pharaoh showing Solomon around the capital, displaying his court and his stables and gathering his army to make an impressive military . . . . Continue Reading »
In his first speech of praise to his Beloved, the Lover of the Song compares her to “my mare among Pharaoh’s chariots” (Song of Songs 1:9). Among other things, the comparison evokes the story of the exodus, where Pharaoh’s horses and chariots are overthrown. Griffiths ( Song . . . . Continue Reading »
In his superb commentary on the Vulgate of the Song of Songs ( Song of Songs (Brazo’s Theological Commentary on the Bible) , p. 28), Paul Griffiths asks what Solomon means by talking about grazing among the lilies. He answers: “This, in the Song, is something the lover is said by his . . . . Continue Reading »
Medieval Christian thinkers were sometimes aware of the tensions between Aristotle’s ideal of magnanimity and Christian virtues like humility. According to Tobias Hoffmann’s essay in Virtue Ethics in the Middle Ages: Commentaries on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, 1200-1500 . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Political Authority and Obligation in Aristotle (Oxford Aristotle Studies) , p. 173, Andres Rosler questions whether gratitude for the benefits of socialization are enough to obligate someone to obey the regime in which he was socialized. Is gratitude sufficient basis for political . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Habermas and Theology , Nick Adams sums up Habermas’s project as an effort to answer this question: “how can there be moral debate between members of different traditions?” Habermas’s answer, Adamss says, is “simple in conception”: “Habermas argues . . . . Continue Reading »
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