Aristotle wrote, “it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” When I think about this quote I imagine a soldier in war, walking through enemy territory naively smelling the flowers. Ideas are dangerous things and to entertain and constantly be around precarious things will ultimately lead to injury. That is, unless we are careful. These analogies of war and danger are an overstating but I...
Part of the postmodern (or post-postmodern if you’re so inclined) predicament is the amount of time we have to be neurotic and even narcissistic. I firmly believe that if I were not living in a society where I have ample time to let my thoughts wander, if I were so focused on the tasks necessary for survival, if I were given solely to my occupation and the immediate needs of every day life, somehow I...
Alex Lundry, Mitt Romney’s data analyst, recently reported that over 60% of evangelical youth support the legalization of same sex marriage (SSM). This number is in stark contrast to the responses of older evangelical Christians to poll on the issue. Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen cited this statistic on NBC’s Meet the Press this past Sunday. The context was a discussion over the upcoming Supreme Court decision regarding the constitutionality of state laws banning SSM. The panel...
Here in Sydney I’m currently co-teaching a seminary class on the doctrine of the Trinity. We’ve spent the first few weeks of the course reading and discussing some sermons by Gregory of Nazianzus. The next section will focus on parts of Augustine’s De Trinitate. In the final third of the semester we’ll work through §59 of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics–“The Way of the Son of God into the Far Country”. Anyways, one of the things we’ll be...
Today’s culture, we as Christians can agree, is riveted by postmodern thought. Morals and truths are relative to experience and perception, one would claim. And in response, Christians, historically, have made efforts to combat this kind of thinking (although even this is now a subject of debate, sadly). But one problem I’ve always had, as an artist myself, was reconciling objectivism (or the view that universal truth exists apart from the mind) with art. “Who...
Last week, Bryan wrote an article entitled, I’m (Kinda Sorta Yeah Not Really) Gay. As you might imagine, the post got a lot of attention: good, bad, and ugly. There were many who offered words of affirmation and encouragement, but along with these came comments with a totally different emphasis. The most common and fundamental objection that many readers had towards the post was that “being gay isn’t wrong.” In addition, the most emotional responses...
My wife took her first philosophy class at her southern California high school. Along with many other historical figures in philosophy, her teacher lectured on Kant. Unfortunately, the only thing that she can remember about Kant is the phrase, “Kant was a real pisant.” To be honest, I have found that this sort of reaction to Kant’s philosophy is pretty common. Michael Slote in his book Essays on the History of Ethics has a chapter...
My friend, Aaron, and I walked into a Mosque on a Sunday afternoon looking for a fight. Or at least I was. Aaron was just being nice by going with me. I was in a class that required me to dialogue with Muslims about their faith and my faith with a slant towards apologetics. As an American, my first thought was a real live Muslim? If you’re not from here (America) you probably don’t know...
“Who are you to tell me what to do?” “Why can’t I do something if it doesn’t hurt anybody else?” “Big government is a big failure; keep its nose out of my business!” Such sentiments echo at Libertarian rallies across the world. Libertarians value autonomy and freedom, and they are not afraid to openly express their disdain for the viewpoints of the opposition. As Christians, however, it is prudent to evaluate such claims in the...
It is hugely disappointing to me that I still have to defend my love for the Harry Potter series to other Christians. In good Two Cities fashion of “reconciling Evangelicals with the ‘Bad Guys,’” I will give two reasons why the Harry Potter series is not a threat to the Christian worldview and is actually a good means of teaching Christian moral values to children and adults. Harry & Stoicism The Harry Potter series is...
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