Ross Douthat latest shows why he’s the best columnist at the New York Times : Liberal democracy offers religious believers a bargain. Accept, as a price of citizenship, that you may never impose your convictions on your neighbor, or use state power to compel belief. In return, you will be . . . . Continue Reading »
Some anthropologists and cross-cultural psychiatrists claim that mental illnesses have never been the same the world over but are distinctive to particular times and places. But because of globalization, Ethan Watters argues , we are Americanizing the world’s understanding of mental health and . . . . Continue Reading »
Recent science news from around our weird universe. The Styrofoam Planet In their search for a planet that looks like Earth — comfortably bathed in sunshine in a pleasant solar system where life would be easy come easy go — astronomers keep turning up the strangest things. They’ve . . . . Continue Reading »
The noble savage as characterised by Jean Jacques Rousseau has been repeated in a variety of venues. The 19th century Slavophile movement in Russia idolized the “simple” peasant. Thomas Jefferson repeated that notion with his political writings emphasizing the single family farm as a . . . . Continue Reading »
As attractive, well-dressed worshipers climbed out of taxis on New York’s Park Avenue and streamed into the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola for the eleven o’clock Solemn Mass on Sunday, January 10, the atmosphere was one of quiet, reverence, and peace. The parishioners were gathering, in . . . . Continue Reading »
[Note: Although I originally posted this on the First Thoughts blog, I thought I’d add it here too. We need something controversial to discuss that isn’t about torture and this seems likely to stir up debate.]The Associated Press reports on a peculiar incident in Malaysia:Eight churches . . . . Continue Reading »
One of the bedrock beliefs that I have as a professor of literature is that we read to learn from, not about. When we read works simply because they are important to our cultural heritage, we have relegated them to irrelevance. Instead, we should read works to discover their living wisdom and . . . . Continue Reading »
How many times have you bumped into the expression, “Preach the Gospel, if necessary, use words.” I detest that expression. I think I understand why some people like it, they want to emphasize the need to not only be hearers, but doers of the Word. OK, I get that, but the vast majority . . . . Continue Reading »
In the Chronicle of Higher Education , Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy who was raised Roman Catholic, makes an interesting argument that the driving force behind environmentalism is the Western Christian concept of guilt and indignation: Feeling unworthy is still a large part of Western . . . . Continue Reading »
The following article I wrote for the 8 June 2009 issue of the Canadian periodical, Christian Courier. Although it does not, admittedly, address the question of precisely what constitutes torture, I assume here that it encompasses methods that are in some fashion disproportionate to the legitimate . . . . Continue Reading »
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