The topic of torture and Christian ethics is now a heated discussion topic here. I’d like to ask a (perhaps naive) question about torture. Where is the harm located? What ethical principles are being violated by torture?Sixteen years ago, I contracted appendicitis and was in the hospital three . . . . Continue Reading »
Is the US leadership of the “free world” in jeopardy? Gideon Rachman ( Financial Times ) suggests that the deeper question is whether there is still a free world to be leader of. That is, he points to evidence from Copenhagen and elsewhere that suggests that world . . . . Continue Reading »
even in the private sphere the Christian is not only vindicated in defending another, but actually has a serious obligation in this matter: qui enimn on repellita socio injuriams, i potest, tam est in vitio quam quifacit (De Off. Min. 1.36.178 [PL 16.8I]). Thus, Moses’ slaying of the Egyptian . . . . Continue Reading »
McGivern again, pointing to the ambivalence regarding military service evident in the accounts of military martyrs. On the one hand: “When Maximilian, the first known conscientious objector in Christian history, declared at his trial in A.D. 295 that ‘It is not right for me . . . . Continue Reading »
In trying to evaluate the significance of the shift from third-century pacifism to fourth-century concern with the just-war theory, it may be helpful to give more attention to Lactantius, a man who lived through the Constantinian revolution and wrote seriously about the problem of military service . . . . Continue Reading »
Hunter summarizes a 1983 article by RA Markus on Augustine and just war. By examining Augustine’s statements on war and Christian society in the context of his intellectual biography, Markus comes up with “a highly nuanced account that stresses Augustine’s deepening . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 1992 survey of recent work on the early church’s views on Christian participation in the military (in Religious Studies Review ), David G. Hunter sums up with this: “the ‘new consensus’ would maintain: 1) that the most vocal opponents of military service in the early . . . . Continue Reading »
Look here.Palin and Captain Kirk mix it up. Palin is funny and at ease. I love her in this clip. Does it matter if she cannot quote Plato correctly if she can yuck it up with Shatner?Have we entered an age where “intellectual” skills will not matter at all to most voters? Will being . . . . Continue Reading »
Office of the White HouseCzar for Celebration and JollificationAlcibiades Antinous, DirectorRE: The White House Christmas CrècheSomeone must tell the President that his display of the Christmas crèche is inconsistent with our recent policies regarding holiday celebrations in the United . . . . Continue Reading »
This past Thanksgiving, my extended family hosted some college students from Asia for the big meal. As we were making small talk, I opened my mouth and had a little roasted foot to go with my lunch: I asked the Chinese students if they had brothers or sisters. They don’t, of course, because of . . . . Continue Reading »
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