In a recent Facebook discussion, Rebecca Bratten Weiss (of the excellent “Suspended in Her Jar” blog on Patheos) suggested that the treatment of violence in the “Song of Ice and Fire” books by George R. R. Martin is, in a sense, more truly Christian than Tolkien’s treatment of the same subjects. In Tolkien a conquering, messianic emperor brings peace through righteous violence. In Martin, on the other hand, violence is portrayed in its full horror. Furthermore, in the fourth book,... Read more
on Donald Trump and the mysticism of money. Read more
Every so often an article appears informing us all, in a very superior tone, that organic food is a big sham which can’t feed the world and isn’t really any better than conventional food. This article from the Telegraph is the most recent one to make the rounds.Certainly just “buying organic” isn’t a panacea. Most people I know in the sustainable food movement are quite aware of this already. For one thing, most of us are less concerned with whether... Read more
I attended Acton University again this year, and my blogs on the subject (which were found at Mission:Work last time) can be found at Pickled Pencil this year. Pickled Pencil is a group blog primarily run by my friend Brandon Harnish. These posts are my first contributions over there. The most recent one is a report on a talk I attended at Acton this year comparing the thought of Jacques Maritain and Alasdair MacIntyre. The subject is relevant in the wake... Read more
I attended Acton University again this year, and my blogs on the subject (which were found at Mission:Work last time) can be found at Pickled Pencil this year. Pickled Pencil is a group blog primarily run by my friend Brandon Harnish. These posts are my first contributions over there. The most recent one is a report on a talk I attended at Acton this year comparing the thought of Jacques Maritain and Alasdair MacIntyre. The subject is relevant in the wake... Read more
This article argues that societies that ate roots/tubers (potatoes, manioc, yams, etc.) got as many nutrients as societies that ate grains, but had fewer reasons to develop complex societies (because grains can be stored in large quantities and are easily stolen). Hence, potatoes and other tubers were a “curse” to societies like the Caribbean Taino that relied on them for food. I question this language of “blessing” and “curse.” The assumption seems to be (if the theory is right) that... Read more
According to Roger Ebert’s review of the 1943 film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Winston Churchill once demanded of Anton Walbrook, the Austrian refugee who plays a German officer in the movie, “‘What’s this film supposed to mean? I suppose you regard it as good propaganda for Britain.” Walbrook supposedly responded, “No people in the world other than the English would have had the courage, in the midst of war, to tell the people such unvarnished truth.”I’m not quite... Read more
Dave Armstrong at Patheos Catholic has pointed out that early Protestants “detested divisions” and were very concerned to maintain unity.He’s right. The most basic argument against Protestantism, which does not require any particular theological premises about authority, is1. The Protestants expected and claimed that all Christians of good will (“endowed with the Spirit” as my dissertation subject Martin Bucer would put it) would be able to see that their interpretation of Scripture was correct, and that by unleashing Scripture a... Read more
If I’m not careful this blog will become nothing but a parasite on Morgan’s. He raises such good questions in both his blog and his FB comments, and I find myself responding on Facebook at such length as to warrant a blog post of my own. I’ll try to blog about other things as well. . . . Most recently, Morgan has raised the question of how his sense of the need to affirm “queer pride” relates to his theological... Read more
One of the key passages in theological debates over homosexuality is Romans 1, in which Paul appears to label same-sex sexual behavior as an example of the depravity that results from idolatry and human sinfulness generally. Morgan Guyton argues in this recent post that, in fact, the teaching of Romans 1 leads in the opposite direction. One way to make this point, found in this address by the Catholic theologian James Allison, is to argue that Paul is using examples of... Read more
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