The End of Negative Theology

When I was in graduate school in the eighties, negative theology was all the rage because it seemed like such a blessing. What better form could a theologian give to the confounding perplexities of deconstruction and the metaphysical obfuscations of postmodernism? Not willing to admit that radical theology was merely reactive, I wrote my dissertation on Karl Barth’s Epistle to the Romans to show that Barth was Derrida avant la lettre. I have since repented of such foolishness. Evangelism is the best retort to questions about our ability to speak about God. As St. Paul said, “I believed, and so I spoke” (2. Cor. 4:13). In the act of witnessing, ambivalence and indecision melt into air. Continue Reading »

The Dumb Ox and the Orthodox

Orthodox Readings of Aquinas by Marcus Plested Oxford, 272 pages, $99 The Greeks never had any interest in Latin culture: This was true in the classical period and was inherited by the Church Fathers (the interest of the Greeks in St. Gregory the Great is the exception that proves the rule). It . . . . Continue Reading »

Kant, Modernity, and Prudence

It is often correctly pointed out that Kant saw himself as carrying out a grand Socratic mission inherited from Rousseau. However, as Kant himself makes clear in his Logic , this had less to do with the recognition of the aporetic character of philosophy and more to do with the distinction . . . . Continue Reading »

Truth, Good, God, and Fullness

Cherry-picking my way through Nicola’s re-rejoinder , here’s what pops out: 1. Nicola seems to agree with me that we can’t be certain about our truths because certainty is the wrong standard of assessment for truths. But she says: I don’t know how truth can function as a . . . . Continue Reading »

A Better Concept of Freedom

On October 31, 1958, Isaiah Berlin gave his inaugural lecture as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford. Entitled “Two Concepts of Liberty,” it was, according to Michael Ignatieff, Berlin’s authorized biographer, “the most influential lecture he ever delivered.” . . . . Continue Reading »