Considering the Future and the Past with an Equal Mind
We live in a moment that is at once pervaded by guilt and dismissive of its reality. This was the paradox set forth by Wilfred McClay last Thursday in his talk, co-sponsored by Trinity Forum and the Pepperdine University, “The Strange Persistence of Guilt in a Post-Religious World: How it Affects our Public Life, and What We Can Do About It.” McClay notes that his students seem to be feel guilty about almost everything: colonialism, environmental problems, structural poverty, … [Read more...]
Sunday was the season two finale of Animal Planet’s hit series “Finding Bigfoot.” I watched it, and then felt bad about myself. Not because I dislike the show—I actually love it. The problem is that I hate the reasons why I love it. The show’s premise is simple. Four people travel from place to place trying to find Bigfoot. Three of them—Matt, Cliff, and Bobo—are hardcore Bigfoot believers. Matt and Cliff interview most of the witnesses and examine the evidence, while … [Read more...]
One of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema comes at the end of an obscure Russian movie about a medieval icon painter, Andrei Rublev. The film, written and directed by Andrei Tarkosvsky in Soviet Russia (an unlikely Dostoevsky among directors in a secular age), tells the story of the painter and his struggles in seven episodes spanning the period from his early adulthood to old age. The seventh and final episode of the film, entitled “The Bell”, focuses on a young man, the … [Read more...]
“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper... he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall … [Read more...]
This week First Things ran an excellent article entitled "Pope Francis and the Clash of Revelations." Its basic argument was that all humans look at the world through the lens of certain basic "revelations" or foundational beliefs. While it may be "technically possible" for us to step outside these beliefs, almost nobody will. The result is that theists and atheists, Thomists and Utilitarians, communitarians and classical liberals all hold certain basic beliefs that make dialogue with the other … [Read more...]
In a blog post published last week by marketing giant HubSpot, CMO Mike Volpe explained why he hired a former editor at Newsweek. The post examines why more and more journalism graduates are moving to the world of marketing: The traditional advertising model is broken. It used to be that if you were a top-tier journalist like Dan, you went to work at a world-class publication (like Forbes), and that would pay you a nice salary because they sold a lot of ads at good prices that were placed … [Read more...]
A few weeks ago I attended a production of the Vagina Monologues. Watching actor after actor deliver a monologue about her vagina was a bit of a culture shock; just a few hours ago, I was on the bus coming from my Christian fellowship at the Trinity Forum Academy, where the topics covered in the Monologues aren’t usually discussed. Under the influence of this culture shock, I instinctively cringed a little at the show’s vagina preoccupation. But I starting warming up to it— … [Read more...]
I recently wrote about an interview I conducted with sociologist Robert Bellah in preparation for a talk he gave this past week at Notre Dame. The talk introduced his thoughts on the next step in his work, following up on his argument in Religion in Human Evolution. A good portion of the talk drew on recent work by Ian Morris on the historical relationship between development and the fate of civilizations. In particular, Bellah found that a developmental “hard ceiling” … [Read more...]
Over at Juicy Ecumenism, guest poster Thomas Holgrave (of the worth-checking-out blog The Hipster Conservative) tries his hand at some religious taxonomy, attempting a description of “Two Kinds of Christian Conservatives.” Holgrave observes that the old liberal/conservative distinction in Christianity is breaking down somewhat as millennial evangelicals and Catholics have emerged as less politically conservative than their parents without necessarily embracing the theological … [Read more...]
Mid-20th-century America saw several theological giants roaming the landscape, participating in public debates, and exercising a degree of social influence unrivalled by any American theologian today. One of the greatest of these giants was Reinhold Niebuhr, Professor of Applied Christianity at Union Seminary. In December of 1954, William Nichols, editor of This Week Magazine, put the following question before Dr. Niebuhr: “If as a result of some cataclysm, it were possible to retain just … [Read more...]
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