Becoming Neo-Pascalian: A Personality Quirk?

January 15, 2013 By K. Mulhern

As we pointed out last week, Pascal’s actual scientific and mathematical work has been far surpassed. We may like stories about Euclid and Galileo, Newton and Leibniz but we don’t usually come across them in the Google rankings of “most quotable.” In fact, for a scientist/logician/mathematician, Pascal has a remarkably unscientific reputation among many contemporary French people. Those whose knowledge of Pascal’s ideas may be marginal but who have some sense that his contemporary, Descartes, was a hard core rationalist... Read more

Becoming Neo-Pascalian: An Introduction, from Cones to Gambling

January 8, 2013 By K. Mulhern

Pascal, this unusual 17th-century giant, seems to be poised to speak again from a distance to a 21st-century generation feeling pulled in multiple directions. While Pascal’s life was unusual for his age, he seems oddly a man of our time in many ways. Most common people of the 17th century had very limited exposure to cutting edge science, philosophy, or mathematics. [There was, however, lots of “cutting edge” religion to go around, though the cutting edge part was not metaphorical... Read more

Becoming a Neo-Pascalian

January 5, 2013 By K. Mulhern

Yesterday I wound up the last obligations of my fall courses. This included grading a handful of papers I couldn’t finish before the holidays. Many of these papers were from the Spiritual Formation class I teach—galloping through scripture and speed-dating with historical figures who have so brilliantly pointed the way for us. There they are, ahead on the road, at the turn in the distance, seeing something we cannot yet see but exclaiming to us wonders nearly inexpressible. Many of... Read more

Ad(vent)oration

December 11, 2012 By K. Mulhern

The darkness of December weighs heavily. Despite the glories of living in Colorado, with its bright blue skies and the heady weight of light during the days, still, December is dark early and late. Dark when we leave in the morning; dark as we drive home from work. The day barely peaks before the long shadows drive the sun to its early rest. So, we wait. The sun and earth will soon renegotiate their relationship, and the reign of night... Read more

According to a Certain Studious Old Man, Objects in Mirror Are Closer than They Appear

November 28, 2012 By K. Mulhern

I read the Psalms, and I imagine you do too. Many read the Psalms when they wouldn’t touch Leviticus with a ten-foot pole. The Psalms are on the “beloved” list, along with things like the parable of the Good Samaritan and Paul’s ode to love; Ezra, perhaps, along with Obadiah and some other books, on the “really? that’s in the Bible?” list. But even then, some Psalms are more beloved than others. Psalm 23 takes the prize, I imagine. Followed... Read more

Tales from My Father: On Prayer and Two Old Women, One with Blue Hair

November 20, 2012 By K. Mulhern

As pastor’s kids, we enjoyed a certain amount of both notoriety and adulation, depending on who the observer was. As a little one, I remember weaving in and out of adult legs and conversations with a sensation of ownership, as though the church lobby was my fair demesne and these were all stewards of some sort. There were times I hugged the wrong legs, thinking they belonged to my dad… but did not. At that young age, I could do... Read more

Thanksgiving, Sin, and Naming the Hunger

November 14, 2012 By K. Mulhern

My Catholic friends reassure me that I know nothing about guilt. They are experts. The very ritual of confession generates guilt, they say. They remember feeling guilty that they didn’t feel guilty, and making up sins to confess. The darkened confessional, the sliding door, the whispered prayers, the priest’s questions – all operated as a virtual guilt production line. Even worse was when they didn’t go to confession or attend Mass. And then saw the priest at school. More guilt,... Read more

Learning to Talk Like Tina Fey

November 7, 2012 By K. Mulhern

Today I read a review of Rachel Held Evans’ A Year of Biblical Womanhood, her account of spending a year trying to “take all of the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible.” This has her end up calling her husband “master,” keeping her mouth shut in church, and staying in a pup tent during her period. I have not read the book. All this I learn from the back cover. I did read the review, though Pastor Guyton,... Read more

Why, Today, I Am Still a Protestant

October 30, 2012 By K. Mulhern

Tomorrow is Reformation Day, the day on which, 495 years ago Martin Luther posted his Facebook protest. Er, I mean, Wittenberg protest. I remember many years ago hearing a chapel talk that was supposed to be on the glories of the Reformation, but was instead a reflection in the tragedy of the Reformation. That speaker was not-so-gently chided about his point of view. As a church historian of sorts, I’ve circled around these ideas for some time. Glories? Tragedies? Hopefully... Read more

What Difference Does It Make?: The Kaleidoscope Effect

October 24, 2012 By K. Mulhern

For the better part of a year, I’ve been working on understanding a book and a doctrine that, shall we admit, are not “bestsellers.” In fact, one of my readers very softly commented: “It was a long and complicated series, and I’m afraid that the truly interested layman ‘in all the details’ might be hard to find. I found a lot of it very, very interesting, and I certainly had no conception that the Trinity could possibly generate that much... Read more