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The Philosophical Crusher

Before we dismantle this imposing structure, let’s step back a moment and admire its elegant lines.” Thus Alex Tourigny, my teacher of philosophical psychology forty years ago, was wont to mark the pause before the crusher. His version of the crusher was a deadly “reduction to first . . . . Continue Reading »

The Vatican and the State of Israel

In a recently published book, Sergio I. Minerbi, formerly of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaks of the Catholic Church as “the chief opponent” of the Zionist movement past and present, and he identifies “the real reasons underlying” this “hostility” as “immutable . . . . Continue Reading »

When Nice People Do Bad Theology

Sure, Walker Percy already said it, but that was as a good-natured joshing, a passing joke. Now it's hit the pages of the Wall Street Journal; everybody's in on it. The November 29, 1990 Journal reports a national survey conducted by the University of Wisconsin's Center of . . . . Continue Reading »

Israel Among the Nationalisms

With the apparent demise of Communism, if not of socialism, the other political pathology of modernity, nationalism, is returning to center stage. If scientific socialism carries the “progressive” idea of human universality to its extreme, nationalism carries the “reactionary” idea of . . . . Continue Reading »

Undertakings and Promises

For Christians, as for everyone else, the topic of sexual ethics is today one of widespread confusion, contention, and uncertainty. In this essay I propose to deal with the specific question of the kinds of promises and undertakings people ought to make when they engage in sexual relations. But I . . . . Continue Reading »

Briefly Noted

Ungodly Women: Gender and the First Wave of American Fundamentalism by Betty A. Deberg Fortress Press, 165 pages, $9.95 paper DeBerg of Valparaiso University makes the argument that the “first wave” of fundamentalism, around the turn of the century, is in fact the progenitor of today’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Careless Flying

I I have been considering the ravens, who live without worrying and have no bins or barns And have no reaping machines. Yet they are fed well—their bodies sleek, gloved in black silk. With what a minor tempest They startle and settle, yet they are the poets of motion. Like folk songs their . . . . Continue Reading »

storms

the wind's blown stars to powder in the sky's blueso the morning's pale and clear, soft as breath,those are storms' leavings,these horizons swept clean.      we fill, we empty      we connect and retract      and sometimes each dream, every cell  . . . . Continue Reading »

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