Mothering an infant is a thankless task. First, you have to carry a large, heavy pouch wherever you go for a number of months. Then comes the agony of labor. The momentary joy of birth is immediately followed by the prolonged inconvenience of nursing, changing diapers, comforting an infant at all hours day and night. Your child may feel gratitude, and feel it deeply, but he can’t tell you, and by the time he’s able to speak he has forgotten... Read more
In his fascinating book on aging and the brain ( The Wisdom Paradox , 2005), Elkhonon Goldberg focuses attention on the phenomenon of “pattern recognition,” the “ability to recognize a new object or a new problem as a member of an already familiar class of objects of problems.” With experience, our ability to recognize patterns can increase, and problem-solving can actually get easier. Think of the old pastor who can cut through thousands of hours of counseling and magically (prophetically)... Read more
It’s hard to pick up a magazine today without finding an article defending Darwin or Darwinism. Many of them are designed to prove that Darwin was not an opponent of religion, and that religion and science can live happily ever after, so long as the wicked stepmothers at the Discovery Institute are kept out of the picture. One of the most interesting and informative of these recent pieces is Gertrude Himmelfarb’s (in TNR, December 12). Among many interesting points, Himmelfarb... Read more
It’s hard to pick up a magazine today without finding an article defending Darwin or Darwinism. Many of them are designed to prove that Darwin was not an opponent of religion, and that religion and science can live happily ever after, so long as the wicked stepmothers at the Discovery Institute are kept out of the picture. One of the most interesting and informative of these recent pieces is Gertrude Himmelfarb’s (in TNR, December 12). Among many interesting points, Himmelfarb... Read more
Sky High focuses on Will Stronghold, son of the greatest superhero duo in history – The Commander and Jetstream, who has some difficulty (but not nearly enough) discovering his powers. Though as much a high school story as a superhero story, Sky High will inevitably be compared with The Incredibles , and will suffer by the comparison. The cartoon has a vastly better script, is much more inventive, and is a sustained assault on egalitarianism. Sky High is of two... Read more
In his book on the Motherhood of the church, Henri de Lubac notes that “Calvin attached such importance [to the notion of the church as mother] that some reproached him for setting up in that way a divine ‘quaternity.’” Yet, de Lubac is critical of Calvin: “In our own century, Karl Barth has gone even father [than Calvin]; he considers that Calvin did not really understand the full significance of the thesis expressed in his image of maternity. Why, he... Read more
The sign of Jonah is certainly the death-resurrection of Jonah 2, as well as the turning to the Gentiles of Jonah 3. But the sign of Jonah also means the setting of a question mark above the future history of Israel. At the end of Jonah, Yahweh asks why he should not be merciful to the great city, but there is no response from Jonah. The hardening of the Israelite Jonah means riches for the world; but Jonah leaves unanswered... Read more
Lindberg points out that “Calvin’s Protestant contemporaries did not view Geneva as a vengeful theocracy. Thousands of religious refugees flocked to Geneva from nearly every province in France, as well as from England, Scotland, Holland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, and Bohemia. When they returned hom, they took Calvinism with them.” Far from a byword for intolerance, Calvin’s Geneva was seen by contemporaries as a “haven for heretics.” Read more
Lindberg points out that “Calvin’s Protestant contemporaries did not view Geneva as a vengeful theocracy. Thousands of religious refugees flocked to Geneva from nearly every province in France, as well as from England, Scotland, Holland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, and Bohemia. When they returned hom, they took Calvinism with them.” Far from a byword for intolerance, Calvin’s Geneva was seen by contemporaries as a “haven for heretics.” Read more
Lindberg summarizes the important, if sometimes inadvertent, cultural contributions of monasticism: “Monastic culture was not limited to copying texts from the past, but also engaged in a variety of intellectual pursuits related to monastic life. These included maintaining a liturgical calendar; mathematics for managing estates; calculations for determining times of prayer, readings, and manual labor; legal work related to monastic estates; histories and biographies of founding monks and their monasteries; rhetoric for preaching; theological and philosophical reflection concerning the Bible... Read more
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