This post is actually a commercial, brought to you by our sponsor (namely, me). I will be conducting a six week (one evening a week) workshop on creating a spiritual legacy for those in the Twin Cities area from Nov. 1 until December 6, 2011. Consider yourself invited if you live in the area.
Read MoreIn the 18th century there was an ongoing debate referred to as “The Ancients-Moderns controversy,” in which one side argued that the present was clearly inferior to the past, especially in terms of art, virtue, and the state of civilization in general. The other side trumpeted the superiority of the present and future over the relatively ignorant past. That debate is still going on.
Read MoreYou don’t have to worry about hurting God’s feelings—at least not with your questions and doubts. God has heard it all. You have never had a fresh doubt or question. This is not to be dismissive of your questionings; it is intended as an encouragement to get them on the table.
Read MoreIn his book on the gospel of Mark, The Genesis of Secrecy, Frank Kermode writes, “we find it hardest to think about what we have most completely taken for granted.” This causes me to ask myself, what do I most completely take for granted, which is a question about presuppositions.
Read MoreKarl Bonhoeffer lost his eldest son in WWI. He lost two others—Dietrich and Klaus—in WWII, both for their participation in the plot to kill Hitler. He also lost the husbands of two daughters, plus many friends. Writing soon after hearing of the deaths of Dietrich and Klaus, he said of that loss, “We are sad, but also proud.”
Read MoreAs a child I knew the world in a very particular manner. I knew that it snowed before Christmas, that bugs were annoying, that the Lakers were magical, and that GI Joes were the best.
Read MoreThis is a “help the author” post. Working on my in-progress book The Skeptical Believer this week, I have created the following very tentative and incomplete list of categories of objections to religious faith in general, and to the Christian faith in particular.
Read MoreCan one write about humility without being just a bit proud if it comes out sounding profound, well-expressed and, well, humble? Let me give it a try.
Read MoreIt’s always nice to find that someone agrees with you, especially if they have a title. I posted a few days ago about deafness as a metaphor for combatants in the culture wars not being able to hear/understand each other. My point was that we speak different languages and mishear each other.
Read MoreOne of my favorite commentators on the intertubes is The Atlantic Monthly’s Ta-Nehisi Coates. Always thoughtful, he is worth reading, even when one disagrees with him.
Read MoreMy name is Nate Taylor and I’m a guest blogger for wordtaylor.com.
Read MoreFrank Kermode, in his very interesting (and secular) book on the gospels, The Genesis of Secrecy: On Interpretation of Narrative (Harvard, 1979) quotes the 1930’s novelist Henry Green: “the very deaf, as I am, hear the most astounding things all round them, which have not, in fact, been said.
Read MoreI was riding in a car yesterday and saw a scene straight from Norman Rockwell. A father was seemingly mowing his lawn and right behind him was his around four-year-old son pushing a small, plastic toy lawnmower, head down and very earnest in his mowing.
Read MoreDietrich Bonhoeffer’s cousin says that as a child Dietrich was greatly moved by reading a book entitled Heroes of Everyday, filled with stories of courageous young people who, with selflessness and clear thinking, often saved other’s lives, sometimes at the cost of their own.
Read More“I have been away from God for a large part of my life . . . . I had gone into exile of my free will.”
Read MoreI was reading this morning about relatively new concerns about the Internet, and especially about search engines. Searching on the Internet is increasingly personalized, in ways that are not apparent to the searcher.
Read More“Reality is that which when you stop believing in it doesn’t go away.”
Read MoreThe June 4-10th issue of The Economist has an interesting article on the Japanese view of the sea—historically and in wake of their devastating tsunami of last March.
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