As William Cavanaugh details ( The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict ), the concept of religion is an invention of the late medieval and early modern West. In the theory of religion as developed by Deists and Freethinkers, there was an original, . . . . Continue Reading »
In his classic Patterns in Comparative Religion , Mircea Eliade notes the doubleness of water symbolism across religions. The natural properties of water provide the basis for the view that water is both deadly dangerous and life-giving: “In whatever religious framework it appears, the . . . . Continue Reading »
In his 2003 Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, 3rd Edition (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society, Vol. 13) , Mark Juergensmeyer distinguishes between religious violence with its “symbolic targets” and “performative violence” from . . . . Continue Reading »
Yahweh says “light,” and as soon as the word sounds light appears. God says, “waters divide,” and they are divided. And so on and on throughout the creation week. This is the form of Yahweh’s creating activity: Whatever the word means, that’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Haugen notes several times in his book that “the vast majority of victims of injustice in the developing world are not victimized by complicated, knotted violations of human rights, but rather by simple, brutal acts of violence that are already against the law in their own countries. . . . . Continue Reading »
In his stirring, challenging Good News About Injustice, Updated 10th Anniversary Edition: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World , Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission gives a fresh spin to living by faith instead of sight: “Christians . . . are meant to be particularly gifted in . . . . Continue Reading »
Gregory of Nyssa illustrates the incomprehensibility of creation by taking a page from Solomon: “Let, then, the man who boasts that he has attained the knowledge of real existence, interpret to us the real nature of the most trivial object that is before our eyes, that by what is . . . . Continue Reading »
Jorge Luis Borges cited the classification of animals from a fictional Chinese dictionary, and Foucault used that list to demonstrate the relativity of classification systems. Augustine beat them both to it. Faustus wants to distinguish neatly between sects and schisms, and concludes that . . . . Continue Reading »
Jim Rogers of Texas A&M writes in response to my post about God and Eros (the rest of this post is from Jim): Re: your question, “What assumptions about sex are behind the common opinion that the Song is only an erotic poem, only a celebration of human sexuality and marriage, full . . . . Continue Reading »
Church history provides a compelling argument in favor of infant baptism, but not in the usual way. The argument is not that there is evidence of the practice of infant baptism throughout church history (though there is). The argument is rather that the shape of church history is more . . . . Continue Reading »
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