Sin, Hope, and Responding to Tragedies
Conor P. Williams wrote an excellent reflection on why sin is no excuse for inaction in response to tragedy, and I’ve been meaning to comment on it. Although it wasn’t his topic, he captured...
Category: Religion
In Practice, Objective Morality Needs No Ultimate Source
In the short video below, Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft goes looking for the ultimate source of morality, doesn’t find it in evolution, reason, conscience, human nature, or utilitarianism, but calls off the...
Being in Uncertainty
Claire Creffield, an atheist who finds that, sometimes, “invoking the concept of God seems a very compelling way indeed of doing justice to the strangeness, the beauty and the peril of our lives,” asks...
Mitt Romney’s Pro-Choice Ad
As someone who tries to follow closely the intersections of religion and politics, I am intrigued by Romney’s recent television ad (embedded below) in which he essentially takes a limited pro-choice philosophical position. The...
Visiting Heaven
Eban Alexander has journeyed to heaven and returned to tell the tale. In addition to writing an upcoming book, he chose to publish his private revelation in the pages of Newsweek. He’s a neurosurgeon,...
Why Faith?
In my latest at Vox Nova, I look at the relationship of faith and love. A sample: The faith for which I strive doesn’t give me certainty about the origins of the cosmos or...
Our Faith in the “Kill List” President
I want to echo what Jason Kuznicki writes on the front page about President Obama’s secret kill list and what it means for our democracy. Especially this: He deserves to lose. And worse. He...
Politicians Shouldn’t “Wear God”
I’m trying to think of a more superficial assessment of American religiosity than this Washington Post piece about Romney capturing the “God vote” at the debate, but nothing comes to mind. Zack Beauchamp calls...
Thursday Theological Inquiry: God as Self-Emptying
My imagining of God has evolved some over the years as I’ve moved from accentuating figures and terms of power (almighty, omnipotent) to highlighting those of humility (kenosis, self-emptying, weakness). These days I am...
Human Sexuality and Religious Norms
Decades after the sexual revolution, many religious conservatives remain fiercely committed to preaching, if not always living, an absolute and absolutist understanding of human sexuality. Mainstream biologists, psychologists and sociologists, building on the science...
