I was thinking about the nature of time because I was invited to listen to and comment on a podcast about hell. That occasioned a consideration of time because it was necessary to evaluate the thesis that those who die without Christ don’t live eternally in torment; rather, their suffering is finite, and then they […]
Read more...Blog
Stink
I had an email a few weeks ago that I’d won a writing contest I entered through the Atlanta Writing Club, the Terry Kay prize for fiction. I stayed mum about it for a bit, just in case it was all a big misunderstanding, but I got a tangible recognition for it, so it must […]
Read more...Good Friday
I was thinking about how Easter is all about our identification with Christ. It’s why we feel this reflected glory on Easter morning. But our identification is to be with Christ not just in His resurrection, but in His crucifixion, as well. And so while Easter is a celebration of our resurrection with Him, today […]
Read more...Christ the Tiger
I picked up this book because I had just read Howard’s Chance or the Dance, and was much impressed. In case you missed it, here is an excerpt from a comment to that post: “This person [Thomas Howard] was a Muggeridge level word smith. When he spoke his words had texture and solidness. It was something I never experienced before. […]
Read more...Why Truth?
Let’s consider truth. Truth in the abstract. The concept of truth. Why does it matter to us? To be clear, the question is not whether particular things are true or not, or whether we prefer truth to falsity, or even our affinity for truth as opposed to falsehood in ourselves or others. The question is: Why […]
Read more...Chance or the Dance
I found Thomas Howard’s book Chance or the Dance because I’d read Eugene Warren’s poem Christographia XIV. Warren used the phrase Chance or the Dance and I thought it would be a good title for a book I’ve written and am just beginning to market, examining evidence (existence, intuition, yearning, significance, and so on) according to […]
Read more...Outrage
I would like to introduce you to Rene Girard, if you’re not already familiar with his work, but first this. Micah Mattix, in his excellent Prufrock daily blog, quotes a W.H. Auden note to a publisher who refused Ezra Pound’s poetry because he (Pound) was a fascist. Auden wrote: “[B]egin by banning his poems not […]
Read more...Search for Certainty
I read an interesting interview of Meghan O’Gieblyn upon the publication of her book of essays Interior States, in an on-line version of Mockingbird magazine dated Feb 14, 2019. I’m excerpting one question and answer for you because it pertains to the so-called “New Atheists” of a few years ago. I used to get so exercised […]
Read more...Mimetic Desire
Interesting (to me) quote from an 1853 book by John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice: And the great cry that rises from all our manufacturing cities, louder than their furnace blast, is all in very deed for this, — that we manufacture everything there except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, […]
Read more...Metaphysical Vibration
I’ve often said that modern culture is essentially materialistic, in the philosophical sense that material (physical) things are deemed to be all there is. And yet, materialists routinely invoke language of the transcendental to explain what’s going on around them, including the word “transcendent” itself. It’s confusing. It has the effect of masking the absence of […]
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