Religion, Non-Reductive and Saturated, Gains Respect in Post-Modern Academic World

Last updated on: October 28, 2021 at 10:55 am By Jack Hartjes

Some tricky vocabulary in Tracy’s Fragments, Chapter One A philosophical dictionary or some background in phenomenology is useful in reading David Tracy’s Fragments. Like when he says, “It may well be, as several contemporary phenomenologists claim, that religion is the nonreductive saturated phenomenon par excellence.” (p. 20) It’s no secret that modern academic thought in general has not been particularly kind to religion. Tracy includes even some theological theories in that modern anti-religious, or better, anti-God sentiment. Much of the... Read more

Fragments Disrupt Oppressive Systems: David Tracy’s ‘Fragments’

Last updated on: October 28, 2021 at 10:43 am By Jack Hartjes

On Fragments: The Existential Situation of Our Time, “Introduction” The first of David Tracy’s two new volumes of essays is about fragments and also a collection of fragments. As I begin this series of posts on Tracy’s latest published work, I have in mind a few key ideas. They are fragments, the other, and the infinite, topics among which Tracy’s more recent thoughts have wandered. At the moment I’m thinking mostly of fragments. Dangerous fragments I see three ways Tracy... Read more

David Tracy, Theologian for the ‘Publics,’ Publishes Two New Books

Last updated on: October 28, 2021 at 10:35 am By Jack Hartjes

Out This Year — Fragments: The Existential Situation of our Time and Filaments: Theological Profiles For a David Tracy fan, it’s been a long wait – 25 years since his last book. This year Chicago University Press published a two-volume collection of Tracy’s essays. Since his last book, On Naming the Present: God, Hermeneutics, and Church, the academic world has been waiting for the “God book” that Tracy has been promising. It doesn’t appear that these collections of essays are... Read more

About Butterflies and the Afterlife — A Neat Thought Heard on Public Radio

Last updated on: April 19, 2020 at 9:03 am By Jack Hartjes

One of the reasons I like national public radio is that it recognizes that religion is a part of America’s life and treats religious beliefs without ridicule or cynicism. Saturday it was about butterflies, the afterlife, and an experiment on what happens to a caterpillar’s memory in the pupa stage. Since it’s Easter time and we’re talking butterflies (actually moths in the experiment), the symbolism concerning life after death was just below the surface. The radio presenters didn’t hesitate to... Read more

Thomas, a Saint for Social Media, and Another Thought from Divine Mercy Sunday’s Gospel

Last updated on: April 20, 2020 at 12:45 pm By Jack Hartjes

People used to say, “I’m from Missouri, show me” — and you didn’t even have to be from Missouri. We still hear about the skeptical age that we’re supposedly in. When it comes to social media, however, gullible is more like it. Where is St. Thomas when we need him? In John’s Gospel Jesus appears to the disciples Easter Sunday evening. Thomas was not with them and refused to believe their story. A week later Jesus again appeared. Thomas was... Read more

Father J. P. Grayland on Clerics’ Eucharistic Fast during Pandemic

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 5:43 am By Jack Hartjes

A New Zealand parish priest has an interesting take on the Church’s liturgical response to the coronavirus pandemic. Father J. P. Grayland says our clerical bias is showing. What is the place of the baptized lay faithful, Father Grayland wonders, when the Church’s public liturgy can happen without lay people present? Grayland describes himself as “pastor of three parishes in a small rural diocese in a small, secular country.” A priest for 30 years, he has written books, including Catholics.... Read more