I almost went to see Hitchcock’s Vertigo in glorious 70mm last week. I admit I don’t know how watching it in that format would differ from watching it on DVD either. Now that I have that off my chest, did you read the heartwarming story of Hitchcock’s deathbed conversion in the Wall Street Journal last year? You must have. Admit it, you rejoiced with the angels at return of one of the lost sheep. Mark Henninger, SJ’s piece, “Alfred Hitchcock’s... Read more
I’d like to share with you the following Rabelaisian bit of news before I get back to more seriously unserious posts tomorrow. CNS claims here that the reported crime rate at the Vatican is at nearly one crime per resident! Aren’t you glad the Reformation hasn’t ruined everything? Just imagine how boring the SEC would be if everybody played by the rules…. Read more
If you don’t know who N.T. Wright is, then you’re probably not interested in theology and have stumbled upon this post by accident. N.T. Wright has been at it for more than twenty (!) years writing the “Christian Origins and the Question of God” series. He started by setting everything up with a survey of Second Temple Judaism in The New Testament and the People of God, followed by a summary of historical Jesus scholarship Jesus and the Victory of God, and a summary of... Read more
I recently received an appointment as a Teaching Assistant for a political science course. The best thing about it is how the readings dovetail into my own research into religion and literature. The course is POLS 307: Religion and World Politics. If you know any students at the University of Washington, tell them to run out and grab the very few remaining spots for this course. They don’t want to miss it. The primary lecturer is Anthony Gill, who is... Read more
Sex abuse is not one of the issues I want to write about, but sometimes write about it I must. It’s as uncomfortable as the back of a Volkswagen. For obvious reasons pedophilia gets people all riled up. The last time I had a digital stalker was when I wrote about Anti-Catholicism. An abuse victim himself, the stalker persisted abusively threatening me personally for two days. He enthusiastically told me how much the Catholic hierarchy (and all priests) should have... Read more
I’ve been working on yet another translation of a Dariusz Karłowicz text. This time it’s an essay entitled “Considerations for a Secular Age” that’s headed to a periodical to be named later. I have also excerpted this Polish thinker’s writings here on this blog. Mark Shea has been taking on one of the groups mentioned in these passages in his post “I’ve Been An Angry Jerk of Late.” I hope he doesn’t consider me to be a member of the other... Read more
This blog began with a series of posts debunking some common myths about Christianity. There are two posts about the troubled history of the concept of religion here and here, one about the positive relationship of early Christianity to money here, and finally three about the questionable notion of a pure Christianity here, here, and finally here. Rémi Brague has built a distinguished career making important distinctions about the Christian heritage in the West. For example, in the classic The Wisdom of... Read more
Due to a late night bout of copy-editing I am not able to write the post I’d like to write. Is this what St. Paul meant by what he said in Romans 7:19-20? What I’d like to share with you is perhaps the most significant publishing discovery I’ve made since Outwitting Squirrels and How to S**t in the Woods. Why is this self-published book (not by me, alas!) so AWESOME? [I mean “awesome” in the original meaning of Aristotle’s thaumazein in... Read more
Today’s post features a rundown of the new and noteworthy books that will be reviewed on these pages in the upcoming weeks. During my time off from blogging I’ve been stocking up on le knowledge and review copies of forthcoming books. These are some of the books you will encounter in the upcoming weeks. Brague is an expert on the interplay of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and pagan sources. He is always the person to go to if you want to find... Read more
Cosmos The In Lost
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