Rene Girard, Religion and Violence

July 22, 2011 By Matthew Tan

The French literary theorist/philosopher/theologian Rene Girard made a great contribution in our understanding of the alleged link between religion and violence. The story is far from simple, but Girard acknowledges a link exists. By the same token, there is much within secular culture that would also fit this “religious” pattern. What is also interesting is that, in spite of this link, the Judeo-Christian tradition stands apart from the smorgasboard of religions. His theory is hard to follow, but a useful... Read more

Monty Python and Philosophy: Need One Say More…?

July 17, 2011 By Matthew Tan

The Popular Culture and Philosophy series of books look at the philosophical undercurrents in many manifestations of popular media such as The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Matrix, as well as other popular cultural icons like baseball, the iPod and the video game Halo. One edition features the British comedy classic Monty Python entitled Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think. A series of sample podcasts of Monty Python and Philosophy and other titles are available. Looking... Read more

Sayings of the Saints: Charles de Foucauld

July 11, 2011 By Matthew Tan

Brother Charles of Jesus (1858-1916, more commonly known as Charles de Foucauld) underwent a process of conversion following his military deployment in Algeria. He lived for a time as a Trappist before becoming a hermit in Nazareth and subsequently among the Algerian Tuareg people. In formulating his mode of evangelisation to the predominantly Muslim Tuaregs, emphasised the importance of embodiment and friendship in his ministry. Furthermore, Charles said I want to be so good that people will say “if... Read more

The Definition of a Liberal Nowadays

June 25, 2011 By Matthew Tan

The American radical social activist Saul Alinsky has been dubbed as one of the “great American leaders of the non-socialist left”. He once said that a Liberal was someone that left the room before an argument began. That was the 20th century, now that Liberalism has established itself as the dominant institutional paradigm in the 21st century (even when articulated through some ostensibly postmodern voices), we find the Liberal being the only one in the room and who bars entry... Read more

Betrayed by Technology: An interview with Jacques Ellul

June 22, 2011 By Matthew Tan

The 24th of June begins a week-long conference in Krakow organised by the Centre for Theology and Philosophy in the University of Nottingham. The conference theme is What is Life? Theology, Science and Philosophy and promises to be quite exciting. Preparations for a paper for a conference such as this make acquainting oneself with the work of the Sociologist-turned-anarchist-turned-theologian Jacques Ellul obligatory. Ellul has made extensive contributions in the area of the sociology of technology with his book, The Technological... Read more

Consumerism and Christianity: An Interview with William Cavanaugh

June 19, 2011 By Matthew Tan

The protestant website 100Huntley.com recently did a a short but highly informative interview with the Catholic theologian, William T. Cavanaugh of dePaul University. Cavanaugh’s use of both postmodern authors (such as Foucault and de Certeau) and patristic sources (in particular Augustine of Hippo) has resulted in a number of uniquely insightful, orthodox and challenging works in political theology, ecclesiology and sacramental theology. His little book of about 100 pages, Theopolitical Imagination, touches on why our participation in the Eucharist is... Read more

Advertising Implanting Memories: Neuroscientific Insights and Cultural Implications

June 15, 2011 By Matthew Tan

In a recent Wired.com article, Jonah Lehrer referred to a neuroscientific experiment concerning marketing images which had very disturbing results. The test subjects, it must be added, constituted 100 university undergraduates, who are supposed to be our future leaders in areas of life as diverse as industry, politics, education, and culture. According to this article, our memories may not be function as independent categories that passively sit in our brains, but are highly malleable things that cannot help but borrow... Read more

The Unseen Hazards of Technologically Enhanced Liturgy

June 12, 2011 By Matthew Tan

We talk a lot about the hidden dangers in our food brought about by the technologisation of the food chain. But how much attention do we give to similarly hidden dangers in our consuming of the Real Food in the Divine Liturgy? In a post on the Patheos religious blogging hub, Deacon Greg Kandra spoke of the increasingly popular phenomenon of replacing hymnals with projected slides on a wall. While this could be seen to be a cost-saving measure (and... Read more

Sayings of the Saints: Pope Benedict XVI

June 6, 2011 By Matthew Tan

This post is a continuation of a series of short posts labelled “Sayings of the Saints”, and follows a previous quote from Desert Father Anthony. To see that post click here. On 1 April 2005, the day before Blessed John Paul II died Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, spoke about the real societal danger, and it is not the impending “clash of civilisations”, as Samuel Huntington and his closet disciples in the shrieking commentarati would have it. Ratzinger said... Read more

Nietzsche & Our Cyborgified Age

June 3, 2011 By Matthew Tan

His woeful views on Christianity notwithstanding, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche made many accurate insights about the nascent version of the secular modernity in which we are now living. One of these includes a startling remark Nietzsche made about a coming epoch that, swept up in the thrall of scientistic efficiency, will become dominated by machinistic mindset. The institutionalisation of this mindset will herald an age where, in Nietzsche’s words, “promise[s] to invent a way of life which refrains from all... Read more