Archive
More than thirty years of First Things articles at your fingertips.
Articles
On Opinion and Judgement
Recently I was asked my opinion on anthropogenic global warming. In the ensuing discussion, there was criticism of my rejection of “the majority opinion of ‘experts’” as a good...
The Ann Rice Meme
Ann had an interesting meme post which I noticed today, the “Ann Rice” meme. This meme asks us to: Name 3 things that really annoy you about church in general....
Ms Rice and Our Divided Church
Some ink (some virtual) has been spilled on novelist Ms Rice announcing that she has “left the Church” but not left Christ. Recently I have been reading and studying...
An Ecumenical Question
Throughout Church history, theological controversy has been one of the enduring features. Name any communion or denomination and you will find one which has struggled with this matter. St....
Bleg: Some N.T. References Sought
One week from Saturday, I’m giving an oral final/homily to a (late vocations) N.T. class that I’m taking. I had a suggestion to do my homily concentrating on the...
The Many Worlds Adiaphora or Heresy?
Two well known strands of Protestant theology are the Calvinist and Arminian. There are a number of differences between these two schools but one of them keys on soteriology...
The Augustine Question
One of the wonderful moments in St. Augustine’s Confessions returned to me in force from out of the blue. Now, I’ve not been a Christian for long in my...
Of Noah and Culture
Do anthropological differences between our individualistic/wealth driven culture and the honor/shame culture of the Middle East (throughout the ages) matter when reading text? Take for example the story of...
Noetic Noah and the Fluffy Hermeneutic
This started as a reply about hermeneutic in the context of the flood on my personal blog. Do we take the flood literally or not. My interlocutor was exasperated...
Entering the Seraglio
Saturday night my wife and I went to the symphony. One of the pieces we heard was Symphony no. 4 by Sergei Prokofiev. In the program notes, one of...
Another Lectionary Thought
David T. Koyzis offers some remarks (with helpful links) on the lectionaries used in various churches. One thing I’ve observed regarding common homiletics and the effect short readings have...
10+ Books with Significant Influence (on me)
Career. Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory … decided my major. Personal Knowledge … more recently set the stage for my thinking on philosophy of...
Constraints and Awareness
In many cultures in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world there is a strikingly different approach to sexuality and the interactions between men and women. These cultures...
Free Digital Church Calendar EO Version
Given that this post points to one digital calendar, here is another, this one, Menologion, which offers an Eastern Orthodox perspective. And if you happen to be in or...
A Hermeneutical Tangle
Frank Turk offers an example of why hermeneutics (what/how we extract meaning from text) is important. I’ll offer a quote to spur discussion: It is curious, to say the...