Emptying Christ in Identity Politics

Last updated on: February 15, 2017 at 8:13 am By Matthew Tan

“Identity” has become a buzzword, peddled and circulated with increasing bombast in all manner of social, political and scholarly discourse. People now cannot do or say anything without first making some statement of his or her racial, gender, geographical or other identity marker, either apologetically or with a touch of chauvinistic pride. In this context, identity is a thing peddled to voters as a spike in the ground, the firm or inescapable foundation upon which all things are built, and... Read more

Friendship, Politics & Justice

Last updated on: February 7, 2017 at 7:49 am By Matthew Tan

We are pleased to feature a guest-post this week by Dr. Timothy J. Furry, who is Instructor of Religion and Philosophy at Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School in Bloomfield Hills, MI in the United States. Dr. Furry is also the author of Allegorizing History: The Venerable Bede, Figural Exegesis and Historical Theory, published by Pickwick Publications. Moreover, friendship would seem to hold cities together, and legislators would seem to be more concerned about it than about justice. For concord would seem to be... Read more

Playing Heaven and the Real Liturgical Deal

Last updated on: January 31, 2017 at 7:25 am By Matthew Tan

The first world drips with entertainment. Televisions beam sporting events, the latest series or reruns from our youth. The sides of buses are plastered with advertisements for movies, while the screens on our smartphones flash yet another injunction to download the mother of all strategy games. Our lunch hours are as much spent catching up on the next drama in our friends’ lives on social media as they are about munching on our sushi rolls. So centered are we on imbibing... Read more

Let My Porkchop Go: Against the Recruitment of Everything

Last updated on: January 24, 2017 at 7:42 am By Matthew Tan

…from a hungry massgoer… One Sunday after Mass, I went to the pub to get a porkchop with a group of other massgoers. When it was served, the first thing that hit me was the lovely freshly fried aroma, together with the meaty fragrance of the gravy that was cascading down its sides. That, combined with the tantalising sizzle, was the sensory orchestra that made me grateful for the wonders of creation. The world was for, a moment, blissful… That... Read more

Prophecy & Architecture

Last updated on: January 17, 2017 at 8:09 am By Matthew Tan

While teaching political philosophy at Campion College Australia, one minor thread of the course related to the impact that commercial and consumer cultures, such as the ones entrenched in Australia, have on the expression or maintenance of a thoroughgoing Christian identity and practice. It was suggested that these consumer cultures do not sit neutrally when set flush against a Christian culture. Rather, consumerism operates with its own cultural logic. In a book entitled Cities of God, the Oxford University Regius... Read more

The Borderlands of Art & Worship

Last updated on: January 10, 2017 at 6:15 am By Matthew Tan

There is a third book in the works somewhere which will, when it finally comes out, discuss our frought relationship between pop culture on the one hand, and the Christian spiritual life on the other. Many are quick to point out the harmful affects of the artifacts of the former on the latter – pointing at everything from Madonna or Lady Gaga or Calvin Klein as undeniable proof everything after 1749 (or simply everything) is profoundly base. Others still, with... Read more

Soulless Incisions in the Frantic Pursuit of ‘Now’

Last updated on: December 21, 2016 at 7:30 am By Matthew Tan

The 2011 Spanish thriller The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito), starring Antonio Banderas, begins with Banderas’ character, a surgeon named Robert Ledgard, inventing a revolutionary burn-resistant artificial skin. As the film progresses, however, it becomes apparent that the acts of plastic surgery that drive the invention of this skin are driven by an attempt by Robert to either bury or immortalise a series of very dark, tragic and potentially incriminating moments from his past which include, among... Read more

Pontifical Sass: More Little Surprises from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Last updated on: December 16, 2016 at 7:25 am By Matthew Tan

This is a follow up from a post last week, showing some of the little highlights from what appears to be the last interview between the German journalist Peter Seewald and Pope Emertis Benedict XVI in Last Testament. The first post, which focused on the first half of the book, identified a selection of surprising little observations from the former Pontiff on a number of issues. One other pleasant aspect of reading this book, especially when one approaches the second... Read more

The Little Surprises of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Last updated on: December 7, 2016 at 8:14 am By Matthew Tan

Most readers are probably already aware that Last Testament: In His Own Words, the second and last instalment of interviews between the German journalist Peter Seewald and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, was released a few weeks ago. The book is striking on a number of levels. Most significant is the fact that, while billed as the scandalous revelation behind his famous act of resignation from the Chair of Peter, that episode is actually a biographical blip compared to a host of... Read more

The Train as Cloister

Last updated on: December 1, 2016 at 2:49 pm By Matthew Tan

From a commuter…which could be the editor…or could not be… Trains are weird things… I read on the train going into work. When I do so one tends to zone everything out, until that crick in your neck or the soreness in your eyeballs kicks in and you need to lift your head to look at more distant objects and realign your vertebrae. Till then, your surroundings do not really become the focus of your attention. Heck, with trains, there... Read more