[Part 3: Continuation of my comments upon reading Barth’s “The Epistle to the Romans”, Oxford University paperback, 1968] As a passing matter, I noted a hint of modal logic in a passage beginning around the middle of page 324 with: “Thus, before every moment in time, God foreordains… Here is it that we encounter the … [Read more…]
Many Christians throughout history have insisted on seeing imputable guilt behind all the sins for which we are responsible. This seems wrong to me. You can be responsible for a situation, say the self-destructively rebellious state of a teenager, though you might well be free of guilt in a criminal or moral sense. Being responsible, … [Read more…]
Even an armchair historian can tell you that a good general prepares for his retreat as soon as he sees the need for it. He tries to arrange an orderly retreat to minimize casualties and loss of equipment and other materiel. He knows not to try to hold ground which is indefensible, being well aware … [Read more…]
I’ve started a series of Lenten meditations on my other blog at To See a World in a Grain of Sand. Those mediations will be used to display some of the spiritual aspects of my worldview, my way of looking at the world in the light of my Catholic Christian faith. Come journey along the … [Read more…]
So far as I can tell, the concept of “original sin” arose because St. Augustine of Hippo and some other important Fathers of the early Church were trained as lawyers. Moreover, the Hebrew Bible was the sacred works of a people who organized their lives by strict legal codes. Consequently, God was depicted as a … [Read more…]
“BrainWork”is a free newsletter distributed by The Dana Foundation run by some of the most prominent neuroscientists, geneticists, and other biologists in the United States and — I believe — Canada. In the July-August, 2006 issue, there’s an interesting article, Out-of-body but in the Brain”. The article tells us: At every moment, the brain effortlessly … [Read more…]
The Bible makes it clear: we must be poor in spirit. Poverty of this sort, the true poverty which can be found in the lives of some who are poor and also in some who are prosperous, doesn’t dictate some sort of extreme asceticism, voluntary or forced upon us. Our Lord Jesus Christ lived in … [Read more…]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Covenant: 3. (Theol.) The promises of God as revealed in the Scriptures, conditioned on certain terms on the part of man, as obedience, repentance, faith, etc. [1913 Webster] I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for … [Read more…]
In most of my posts, I’ve certainly seemed a pessimist, targeting the great problems of our age: moral decay and profound illiteracy in particular. As I’ve presented matters, modern men have the moral sensibilities of either self-righteous twelve year-olds or perverse twelve year-olds. Not options which are particularly attractive. Reading skills have decayed to the … [Read more…]