Free Symposium: Economy, Idolatry and Secularisation with William T. Cavanaugh (11th July)

Last updated on: July 8, 2016 at 4:56 pm By Matthew Tan

Readers in the Sydney area might be interested to know that the University of Notre Dame Australia, in association with Campion College Australia, will be hosting a free day symposium featuring Prof. William T. Cavanaugh from DePaul University, the author of popular theological volumes such as Torture & Eucharist, Theopolitical Imagination, The Myth of Religious Violence and his latest book, Field Hospital. The symposium will be held under the title “Economy, Idolatry and Secularisation” and will orbit around many popular themes in his work, including... Read more

Selfies, Cake & Death

Last updated on: July 4, 2016 at 8:31 pm By Matthew Tan

The Guardian’s Rana Dasgupta recently wrote a piece concerning the now common practice of posting of photos on social media. It’s title, suggesting that such an activity “is not living”, might give the impression of the all too familiar online rant about the seeming frivolousness of social media. At one level, it is such a critique. Dasgupta draws our attention to the fact that by focusing on the digital record of an experience (of say a sight or food item)... Read more

Temptations of the “Everybody”

Last updated on: June 30, 2016 at 4:35 am By Matthew Tan

Nota Bene: Due to the impending porting of The Divine Wedgie to the Patheos Catholic channel, this will be the final substantive post on this platform. Links to the new site will be posted once it is live. Commonweal Magazine recently published a highly informative article by Regina Munch, on her reflections on the post-Brexit fallout among millenials, as well as the recriminations of racism and xenophobia following the narrow victory of Britons wishing to leave the European Union. Though... Read more

Homesickness for Alien Places

Last updated on: June 30, 2016 at 4:36 am By Matthew Tan

There are times when, after coming back from a sojourn overseas, we start pining for it. Sometimes, this pining can be the afterglow of a holiday destination after having to face the imminent return to the office. At other times, however, this pining stems from something more than a mere reluctance to go back to the drudgery of work. This variant of the experience of pining for foreign places often takes the form of a kind of homesickness. This experience... Read more

Simulations & Spouses

Last updated on: June 30, 2016 at 4:38 am By Matthew Tan

The popular philsophical writer Alain de Botton recently published an article in the New York Times outlining the ways in which, in the end, everyone marries the wrong person (a longer version of this essay can be found here) While this is often a cause for despair, de Botton chimed in with an encouraging note, as well as a note of caution with the words: The good news is that it doesn’t matter if we find we have married the... Read more

Post-Materialism, Sacramentality & Marketing

Last updated on: June 30, 2016 at 4:38 am By Matthew Tan

A friend on social media once wondered out loud why a big telecommunications company would decide to come out to join in a massive media campaign by a slew of large corporations who supported a particular social cause which, on the surface, had little or nothing to do with their particular lines of business. The question then asked out loud was “what do these causes have to do with making money”? Nothing was said out loud, but silently and slowly... Read more

Discerning Before Utopia

Last updated on: May 15, 2016 at 7:19 am By Matthew Tan

This post was spurred on by two things, a class given on discernment at Campion College Australia and reading a letter in a section of the monthly journal Traces, put out by the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. In going through the contingencies of life, discerning God’s will is always hard to do. The challenge becomes particularly acute when we realise that discernment is almost always mixed with our desires and the frustrations of those desires by the slings and arrows... Read more

Prayer After “The World Spins Madly On”

Last updated on: June 30, 2016 at 4:52 pm By Matthew Tan

Almighty God, You moved your servant to listen to “The World Spins Madly On” by the Weepies, that short, beautiful song of unfulfilled longing, broken promises, and utter helplessness in the face of this barbarian called life that you have let loose on us. In this song you remind your servant that of all the contingencies of life, people, days, places, memories, words are just that – things that pass by us and are not meant to stay with us.... Read more

Changes Afoot

Last updated on: May 2, 2016 at 6:56 am By Matthew Tan

The Divine Wedgie is currently in discussions with the Patheos Catholic blog channel to move the blog over. It is a great honour to be considered for this shift and share the same space with many prominent blogs such as Bad Catholic, The Rule and the Raven, Suspended in Her Jar, The Dorothy Option and Standing on My Head, just to name a few. Details are yet to be finalised, and the transition might still take a while. In preparation, the blog’s content will need to... Read more

Meaty Souls & the Death of Prince

Last updated on: April 25, 2016 at 10:05 pm By Matthew Tan

People die everyday, sometimes in great numbers at a single time, from wars, genocides, domestic violence, stabbings, shootings, prenatal dismemberments and natural disasters. We are so bombarded by death and the notifications thereof that the avalanche of bodies cascading down into the meat-grinder of history has almost become a kind of cultural white noise, the backdrop to everyday lives punctuated by the beholding of more virtual deaths on television shows, games and movies. In light of this, it seems... Read more