If we are unclear as to the authority for our cultural transformative efforts, we run the risk of being transformed ourselves by the very culture we hope to change. In which case, there will be little difference between Niebuhr's “Christ transforming culture” and “Christ of culture.” Continue Reading »
The long history of defective Christian scriptural exegesis occasioned by problematic translations is a luxuriant one, and its riches are too numerous and exquisitely various adequately to classify. But I think one can arrange most of them along a single continuum in four broad divisions: some . . . . Continue Reading »
Exactly one year ago I suggested that we read through Augustine’s City of God in 2014. I’m happy to report that we accomplished our goal. I had hoped maybe a half dozen people would become interested in the project, but over a thousand people joined the Facebook group. Continue Reading »
A few years ago I learned a new word. I wonder if you know it—ecotone? An ecotone is where two ecospheres come together—where they meet and merge into one another. The Mississippi River flowing into the Gulf of Mexico—that is an ecotone. Or imagine flying over the plains out West, and then you look up and there are the Rocky Mountains. Where the plains meet the mountains, where the current meets the tide—that is an ecotone. An ecotone is always a place that is fragile, unstable, shifting, fluid, risky, filled with danger and yet, at the same time Continue Reading »
Ignatius Press has been for some time promoting this new film based on the life of St. Augustine. I saw it the other night at one of the public showings that Christian groups are encouraged to sponsor, and while the rest of the largely church-going and Catholic-student-group audience seemed . . . . Continue Reading »
As Thanksgiving approaches, many of you will be Homeward Bound and back again, on turnpikes or through airports, and you are starting to ask that key question: what recorded books ought I to obtain for the journey? Well, for the certifiably insane geniuses and Christian masochists, who can navigate . . . . Continue Reading »
This great twentieth-century scholar loved Plato, wrote Christian apologetics, and was a first-rate scholar with secular publications still in print. Sadly, A. E. Taylor was not C. S. Lewis, lived about the same time, and is little read by anyone but specialists while Lewis continues to drive whole . . . . Continue Reading »
“Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” (Augustine, Confessions (Book 1)The longing of our hearts for something more, something beyond ourselves is powerful. Intuitively, we know that we need something to complete our broken hearts, . . . . Continue Reading »
This term I have been teaching Ancient & Mediaeval Political Theory, a course that is crosslisted between the philosophy and political science departments at Redeemer. Yesterday we heard two fine student presentations on Thomas Aquinas’ writings on the virtues (Summa Theologica Ia-IIae, qq. . . . . Continue Reading »
Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine by robert dodaro cambridge university press, 262 pages, $75 In the year 412 Augustine received from the pagan pro-consul of Africa a series of questions about the Incarnation and other Christian teachings. The topics arose out of regular . . . . Continue Reading »
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