“What time is it?” This may seem a simple and straightforward question. We glance at our watches or at the clock on the wall and give an answer. In fact our answer to this question reveals a great deal about our worldview. We often conceive of time as a commodity, some kind of stuff . . . . Continue Reading »
In the Summa theologiae (1.1.9), Thomas argues that “it is more fitting that divine matters should be conveyed under the figure of lowly bodies than of noble bodies.” Rocks are better figures for God than ideal forms. Thomas gives three reasons for this preference: First, if . . . . Continue Reading »
David Tracy gave a long lecture on the “tragic unconscious of the West.” He summarized the tragic vision as including a) necessity; b) intense suffering and c) an active response to suffering that is not necessarily heroic. One of the intriguing points he made was that tragedy’s . . . . Continue Reading »
David Hart responded to several critiques of his book, The Beauty of the Infinite , in an AAR session this morning. Gerard Loughlin defended Nicholas Lash against Hart’s assaults on his endorsement of a tragic reading of the gospels. Hart responded by saying that he had not misread or . . . . Continue Reading »
Russell Moore gave a vigorous presentation at ETS on why egalitarians are winning the evangelical gender debate. He summarized some of the recent sociological work on evangelical family life, which presents a mixed picture. On the one hand, Bradford Wilcox’s Soft Patriarchs, New Men shows . . . . Continue Reading »
Not long ago, Frank Schaeffer frothed out a piece of mind-boggling stupidity in the San Francisco Chronicle attacking Pope Benedict XVI as a fundamentalist. It says something about Ratzinger’s learning that he is the author of 86 books, 470 articles, and has been a member of the Academie des . . . . Continue Reading »
David Klinghoffer argues in his Why the Jews Rejeced Jesus that pagan Europeans would not have embraced Jesus if the Jews had not rejected Him: “If you value the great achievements of Western civilization and of American society, thank the Jews for their decision to cleave to their ancestral . . . . Continue Reading »
God is light and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). Eschatologically, the alternation of light and dark ceases for the creation (Rev. 21:25). Yet, all things were created by Him and manifest Him, and the first form of creation to come from Him was covered with “darkness.” And the . . . . Continue Reading »
Mark Noll makes the following important distinction between the Puritans and later evangelicals: “Although Puritans stood against Catholic and Anglican formalism, salvation for the Puritans was still mediated by institutions - family, church, covenanted society; in evangelicalism (at least in . . . . Continue Reading »
In an intriguing book published some years ago, historian David Noble described the origins of modern science among medieval monks and friars who lived in what Noble called “a world without women.” Though the book promoted every trendy academic fad existing in 1992 and was rife with . . . . Continue Reading »
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