Apr 21
Evil is in the news again. This week’s tragedy in Virginia, the seemingly endless stream of death and destruction that comes out of Iraq, the recent tsunami in the Solomon Islands… these things always force us to acknowledge, again, that our world is not as it ought to be. Read more
I’ve been meaning to bring up an article from last month’s edition of The Walrus for a while now, but time has not permitted it. The article is called “Driven to Distraction,” and discusses the effect of the “ubiquitous technology” of our modern world upon our ability to think (I tried to link to the article, but it’s in an area only available to print subscribers. I guess you’ll either have to trust my summary of it, or go find an actual hard copy—which may not be a bad idea, given the content of the article…). Read more
Well, I haven’t posted anything for a while here, so I though I would provide a brief update for those who are interested.
I wrote my last exam (!) yesterday afternoon, and am looking forward to a little bit of time off now before I start research on my thesis this summer. It was a very strange feeling walking out of school yesterday knowing that I have likely written my last major exam in this academic journey I began five years ago. My hand is certainly grateful—they still haven’t figured out a way to let us use laptops for exams at Regent, and 27 pages of handwriting leaves the digits feeling a little cramped to put it mildly. It’s a relief to close the chapter of preparing for and worrying about these three hour “information dumps” that are worth such significant portions of final grades… Read more
Easter is the season for celebrating Jesus and what his death and resurrection accomplished for the world. It seems to be one of those times of the year when everyone who has some nominal identification with the Christian tradition finds their way back to a church service. Apparently, even some members of the Toronto Maple Leafs have taken an interest in churchgoing and prayer during this, the most important period of the Christian calendar, in the hopes, I presume, that God is as concerned that the New York Islanders lose tomorrow as they are. Read more
One of my philosophy professors at the University of Lethbridge once said something to the effect that all higher education is, in some form or another, about learning how to read a book, and the farther I have gone in my academic journey, the more I have realized the truth of this statement. I have actually found blogging about the books I read to be a helpful way of learning how to do this, both in terms of processing them more fully, and learning how to articulate their arguments more adequately through the discussions that sometimes follow. So, having said that, on to what’s currently distracting me from my studies… Read more
Well here’s a story that’s bound to generate a bit of controversy especially given our current political climate. I saw this on a newsstand as I was waiting for Naomi and the kids at the airport last week, and I had to do a double-take to make sure I saw the headline correctly. I’m not sure it’s exactly the kind of thing some in America are looking for when they seek to “get the bible back in the classroom,” but it’s a somewhat surprising argument to find in a major news magazine nonetheless. The following quote offers a summary explanation of sorts as to why such a “step back” might be a good thing: Read more
As some of you may know, I’m hoping to do a thesis this year which focuses on the problem of evil in some form or another. With an eye towards that, I’m currently researching a history paper on the Lisbon earthquake and the decline of philosophical optimism in the eighteenth century. Read more
I’m bald.
I thought I would start with a frank admission of the fact that my own head is, shall we say “sparsely populated” lest anyone think that in what follows I am poking fun at a segment of the population for which I have no affinity. I’ve probably been shaving my head at least since I was twenty-five, so I feel the pain of and stand in solidarity with all those men out there for whom combs and shampoo represent hazy memories of a distant and beautiful past… Read more
Well I’ve returned to Peter Rollins in the last couple of days, and it seems that I’m not quite done musing on this guy’s ideas (well-intentioned promises to the contrary). Forgive the overlap and repetition that will undoubtedly occur in what follows, but I do feel that it is important to wrestle with ideas such as the ones Rollins is advocating. He is a thinker who is certainly committed to taking the postmodern challenge to faith and epistemology seriously; however I wonder if he sometimes goes farther than either faith or philosophy requires him to. Read more
I’m providing the following link to Ben Witherington‘s recent post about blog etiquette. I’m not doing this because I feel that discussion and debate on this blog has been particularly rancorous or uncivil or anything like that. Far from it.
I have, however, had a few recent attempts to post comments anonymously. Here I am in agreement with Dr. Witherington’s “First Commandment”—if you can’t at least identify yourself in some way and stand behind a comment you wish to make public, then it’s not going to appear here. Again, this is not a common occurrence by any means, but clarity on these matters is always better than confusion.
Well, this really is a head-scratcher for me. This morning I came across this truly baffling article in the New York Times. Leaders of several conservative Christian groups have apparently drafted a letter with the expressed purpose of attempting to dissuade the Washington policy director of the American Association of Evangelicals, Rev. Richard Cizik, to stop speaking on the problem of global warming. Read more
I’ve posted a few reflections on Peter Rollins’ How (Not) to Speak of God in the last couple of weeks, and I alluded to some views of his which might find their way into a post at some time. Well that time is now. Rollins has some interesting ideas about how human beings are to love in response to God—ideas that I am having some difficulty going along with (I promise this will be my last post about this book, so maybe you can humour me for a while longer…). Read more
Last Saturday, Naomi and I had the entirely unusual and entirely pleasant experience of an entire day in Vancouver without the kids (some friends had generously offered to let them have a sleepover from Friday to Saturday). After a leisurely morning where we could actually sleep in and have an enjoyable breakfast at a cafe on Main Street, we went to Pacific Theatre and saw the Canadian Premiere of The Quarrel by Joseph Brandes and Joseph Telushkin. Read more
I’ve finished reading the “theory” part of Peter Rollins’ book that I brought up in a previous post and I have to say that it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. There are times when Rollins is really insightful, and offers a genuinely illuminative way of looking at or understanding the nature of faith. At other times, I was completely baffled at why he would introduce certain ideas into his scheme. I’ll post about the latter another time… Read more
I came across an interesting article yesterday morning, which raises a whole bunch of important issues from my perspective. The story deals with Marcus R. Ross, a geologist who recently completed a doctoral dissertation at the University of Rhode Island. The subject of his dissertation was “the abundance and spread of mosasaurs, marine reptiles that, as he wrote, vanished at the end of the Cretaceous era about 65 million years ago.” According to his supervisor, his work was flawless – a brilliant piece of scientific research. So far so good… Read more
Just wanted to post a brief follow up to a discussion Dale and I have been having on the prominence of the resurrection vs the incarnation vs the crucifixion. In a previous post, I had reacted against Peter Rollins’ claim that our faith ought not to depend on the triumph or victory of the resurrection. At issue is where we ought we to locate the primary significance of the redeeming work of Christ. Read more
I’m currently reading through a little book by Peter Rollins called How (Not) to Speak of God. Rollins seeks to lay out some of the theory and praxis behind the movement known as the “emerging church,” and in so doing attempts to re-emphasize what is sometimes referred to as the “apophatic” strand of Christian tradition. Put briefly, this tradition sees God as so radically transcendent that it is more appropriate to speak of him in terms of negation—what he is not—because all of our positive statements fail to capture his essence, and communicate only our own understanding of God. Read more
Feb 5
My post about the jarring experience of attending a Regent chapel which highlighted the monstrous evils that plague our world followed by a celebration of the blessing of a new library generated a surprising amount of interest. As the discussion seems to have drawn to a close, and I’m not sure people will be checking back, I thought I would highlight the most recent comment. Personally, I was greatly encouraged to hear from this man, and am thankful not only for his generous contribution toward the building of the library that I now enjoy, but that he took the time to describe what goes on behind the blessings that people like me wonder endlessly about. It was instructive and inspiring to see that these incongruous experiences need not be paralyzing—there are people out there whose “lives have theological outcomes” in important and commendable ways.
 | Ryan on We Should Let Jesus Save … |
 | Dan VanderSluis on We Should Let Jesus Save … |
 | inquisitivelypinkcd4… on We Should Let Jesus Save … |
| Ryan on We Should Let Jesus Save … |
| inquisitivelypinkcd4… on We Should Let Jesus Save … |
Rumblings 