“For [the one] who has lost God the people [or, the nation] can be a first station on [a] new way.” These are the words of Martin Buber, that brilliant Jewish philosopher. He is reflecting here on the loss of his pietist roots in Hasidic Judaism and on his first impulse to channel that former faith into national hopes, into Zionism. Buber in some ways eventually came around to a more religious, Hasidic existential worldview. But what struck me about... Read more
Ross Douthat points to three features of the Romney campaign that have slowed down victory … but I’d suggest his goalposts are moving comment might be the best idea: what is happening is that the media doesn’t want that campaign to end. So they are moving the goalposts to prolong the story. Mitt Romney has good reason to be exasperated with the way his slow progress to the Republican nomination has been covered in the press. Again and again, he’s... Read more
No source is more “infallible” than The Daily Beast and Andrew Sullivan’s “biased and balanced” coverage, but here it is: Read more
By Giacomo Galeazzi: There’s a bit of sensationalism and a bit of news and a bit of history (belief in resurrection after three days) in this recent discussion out of the Vatican: Professor, what is the Gabriel’s Revelation stela on show in the “Verbum Domini” exhibition in the Vatican? “It is an extraordinary archaeological find which resurfaced back in 2000, in the Eastern part of the Dead Sea. It was on the west bank of the Dead Sea that the... Read more
By Brett McCracken: The technological structures of our Twitterstream, iPhone-ready, newsticker, push-notification culture have made “being in the loop” as natural a thing for us as breathing–and almost as important. These days, it’s seen as essential to know what’s going on in the world–what’s trending–and not only to know about it, but to comment on it. If something is being buzzed about or going viral, we must chime in: unleash a quick Facebook update, add a Tweet to the chorus, throw... Read more
Christian theology in the West all goes back to Augustine. Even when theology today is not completely shaped by Augustine, and even when it diverges from him (as it often does), it gets its framework from Augustine. Which means Augustine gets blamed often, and many times wrongly. I once read a manuscript by an author who was giving Augustine a hard time and I was convinced the author hadn’t read much of Augustine. One of the most important things Augustine... Read more
Real estate people say real estate is about three things: location, location, location. Well I suspect integrating business and faith is also about three things: vocation, vocation, vocation. “Vocation” comes from the Latin vocare meaning “to call.” “God calls each of us into the divine relationship, and we respond to this call through the living of our lives, including our work lives.” (89) You might say that vocation helps us understand our location within God’s mission. Today we move to... Read more
Over the border in Wisconsin lots of funny things happen, and it all begins with those silly cheesehead hats the good folks of Wisconsin wear. But something else is causing this rumbling, so I’m putting it out to the good readers of Jesus Creed: What’s causing these noises? (CNN) — Mysterious explosions. Unexplained shaking. Something’s going on in Clintonville, Wisconsin, but nobody seems to know what it is. The sounds — variously described as rattling pipes, clanging metal, thunder or... Read more
By Paul Copan: If humans are multi-dimensional, faith and apologetics must be too. This final point gets important reinforcement in philosopher Clifford Williams’ excellent and accessible book Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires and Emotions for Faith.[6] I highly recommend it. Williams argues that we are right to emphasize existential human longings and needs, not simply “reason” or “evidence,” as traditionally understood. Indeed, it is easy for Christian apologists to overstress “reason” and underemphasize “need.” Yet both... Read more
From Mona Charen, in her brief sketch of Arthur C. Brooks. The value that connects ownership and possessions to labor, hard work and one’s ambition is eroding. The American work ethic can be eroded though, and will be, Brooks argues, by an expanding welfare state. It isn’t just that people who believe life to be unfair demand that governments “equalize” outcomes. It’s that once governments undertake to equalize things, people begin to believe that success is more a matter of... Read more
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