An Ugly Retreat

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…]

God as Other — What Was Karl Barth Up To?: Part 1.

I’ve been reading Karl Barth’s Epistle to the Romans, a book surprisingly oft-read decades ago. [For the scholars out there, I’m using the paperback edition published by Oxford University Press in 1968.] Barth’s writing and thinking style is still more discursive than mine, and he is probably still more intense than I am at my … [Read more…]

The Christian in the Universe of Einstein: 6. Using the Techniques of Negative Theology in Physics and Metaphysics

I’ve argued that the human mind is shaped by its immediate environments, including social relationships starting with that between infant and mother. From there, we expand out into larger sections of those immediate environments and may begin to interact with other environments. In this expansion into other environments, we’re like other opportunistic animals — bears … [Read more…]

Defining Principalities, Powers, and Invisible Hands: Still Preliminary

I’ve been thinking about Principalities, Powers, and Invisible Hands for a good decade or so, not every day but often. My academic background is in mathematics and I’ve read fairly broadly in ‘chaos theory’ and related specialities. I’ve even read some of the works of John Casti and Stuart Kaufmann, two experts in self-organizing systems. … [Read more…]