Screaming Wisdom

Last updated on: September 25, 2014 at 7:13 am By Matthew Tan

In Scripture classes this week, students at Campion College would have covered the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. Whilst acknowledging the philosophical and cultural influences of its neighbours, the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament nonetheless exhibits something unique. For the wisdom of the Near East and the Greeks was one of intellectual speculation of the mind, there is a passionate streak that resides within Hebrew notions of wisdom. Take, for instance, the Book of Job. In its search... Read more

Dali’s Corpus Hypercubus

Last updated on: October 5, 2017 at 7:03 am By Matthew Tan

In Australasia, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is followed immediately by the feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Australasia’s celebration of the Seven Sorrows would coincide with the Feast of the Exaltation in other continents like Africa, Europe and North America. This coincidence brought about by the convergence of geography and mathematics finds an artistic manifestation in Salvador Dali’s famous painting Corpus Hypercubus, which he completed in 1954. The use of the hypercubic cross, as... Read more

The Lovesick Platonist

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 5:55 am By Matthew Tan

In the experience of heartbreak, one often senses a profound disconnection with the world. In lovesickness, one cannot eat, drink, sleep, work or relate with friends. The bonds that connected him with so many things in the world seem to be put asunder with the loss of connection with the object of one’s love. While this may be associated with emotional trauma, Fr. Robert Barron’s recent video on Woody Allen may have inadvertently provided another, more profound philosophical underpinning to... Read more

The Third Schism

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 12:49 am By Matthew Tan

Robin Parry, an editor in the theological publishing house, Wipf & Stock, and Andrew G. Walker, Canon Professor of Culture, Theology, and Education at King’s College in London, have this year published a highly important book entitled Deep Church Rising. Whilst aimed primarily at an Evangelical audience, the book should be of great importance for the universal Church for a number of reasons. In the first instance, Deep Church Rising is important for being one of the few theological texts... Read more

New Podcast: Faith in the Church of Facebook

Last updated on: August 22, 2014 at 6:43 am By Matthew Tan

The Sydney-based webradio station Cradio recently released a podcast of a paper presented by the Divine Wedgie’s Matthew Tan in the Theology and Communications Conference in the University of Santa Clara in California. The conference was sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Pontifical Council of Social Communications. The paper uses Pope Francis’ Lumen Fidei as the touchstone on how to approach the practice of faith in the Church when it is immersed in cyberspace. It primarily does so... Read more

The Fathers and the Assumption of Mary

Last updated on: August 15, 2014 at 12:22 am By Matthew Tan

Today, the Roman Catholic Church marks the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, which was included as one of the dogmas of faith on 1st November 1950 by Pope Pius XII. This is one of only a small handful of dogmas that was articulated by the Bishop of Rome ex cathedra, that is, from the See of Peter and without an ecumenical council. The document that articulates this dogma is Munificentissimus Deus (“The Most Bountiful God”). The document is highly informative... Read more

Prayer as Political Theory

Last updated on: August 9, 2014 at 3:48 am By Matthew Tan

The political science journal “Politics, Religion & Ideology” has kindly provided an advanced online copy of the article “Christian Prayer as Political Theory” by the Divine Wedgie’s Matthew Tan. Below is the abstract of the article The question concerning the boundary between the religious and political is a continuously vexing question for Christians who want to contribute to public life and those who want to engage public life in a manner that is consistent with their spiritual lives. This article argues... Read more

Postsecular Entertainment

Last updated on: July 31, 2014 at 10:20 am By Matthew Tan

Entertainment has often been the whipping boy of culture warriors, who cite anything from movies to music videos as vanguards for a rampant secularism which dilutes the Christian-ness of our culture. The casual observer, however, might have reasons to be skeptical about this claim. Though this may have been true in the last 40 years of the 20th century, this claim’s veracity is questionable as we head midway into the second decade of the 21st. We may instead be... Read more

Is Christianity Addicted to Bass?

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 8:33 pm By Matthew Tan

In Christian chant, particularly Gregorian and Byzantine chant, there exists a practice of underpinning a song with an often monotonic drone, which is given the greek name of ison. The ison operates as a musical background to the melody as is demonstrated by this sample. https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/fr4mAIibx50&source=uds The musical craftmanship that is involved in the ison makes it easy to attribute a simply musical musical significance, in that the drone provides an all important canvass from which the melody can emerge.... Read more

On Last Times…

Last updated on: June 27, 2014 at 4:03 am By Matthew Tan

When things, events and people are encountered for one last time, the character of the encounter changes. Whilst mundane, such encounters are often taken for granted and quickly forgotten, and often accompanied by the assurance that this encounter would repeat itself soon enough. When you realise that the event is not to be repeated, however, the encounter takes on a different character. It seems like an almost revelatory event. What was once glibly looked over now presents itself in all its... Read more