A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Books

  • Thrifty

    Took a trip this afternoon to a big Salvation Army thrift store just outside of DC in Maryland. These were my finds: –Peter Singer, ed., In Defense of Animals –Keith Akers, A Vegetarian Sourcebook: The Nutrition, Ecology, and Ethics of a Natural Foods Diet –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion –Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Read more

  • More thoughts on omnipotence and creation

    In the previous post I talked about Jay McDaniel’s proposal for a revised account of divine omnipotence and creation based on the suggestion of a primordial chaos that coexists with God, a chaos out of which God creates the world and which limits the divine ability to shape creation. I agree with McDaniel about the Read more

  • Creation and omnipotence: a process perspective

    As a follow-up of sorts to my reading of Christopher Southgate’s The Groaning of Creation, I picked up Jay McDaniel’s Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life, which Southgate refers to a number of times in his book. McDaniel is a process theologian who has also been influenced by feminist theology, as Read more

  • Groaning of Creation: Index of posts

    Thought it might be helpful to have links to all my posts on Christopher Southgate’s book on animal theodicy, The Groaning of Creation, in one place. 1. Intro 2. The only way? 3. God so loved the world 4. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy 5. Heaven can wait 6. Priests of creation 7. The Read more

  • Tragedy of the commons

    I picked up this little primer on climate policy at the library and it offers a very lucid, and surprisingly substantial given its length, introduction to the various tools for responding to climate change (carbon tax, cap-and-trade, renewable energy investment, etc.), their pros and cons, and which players support or oppose which policies. He convinced Read more

  • Of dogs and asses

    Today at the library I picked up what looks like a great new book: Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition, by Laura Hobgood-Oster. It’s a study of the role animals have played in Christian stories, art, iconography, and piety throughout the ages, with an eye toward recovering a more positive view of Read more

  • The Victorian PETA

    The Post weekend book section has a nice write-up of a new book called For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement, written by Kathryn Shevelow. The book focuses on the animal protection movement that arose in England in the 18th and 19th centuries, a movement that came in the face Read more

  • Dogma and prayer

    I think I mentioned a week or so ago that I’d been reading Anglican theologian Austin Farrer’s Saving Belief. Well, I just finished another work of his called Lord I Belive: Suggestions for Turning the Creed Into Prayer, and it’s another great read. Farrer argues that “prayer and dogma are inseparable” (p. 9). To be Read more

  • Thought for the day

    The issue before us is to discover or determine what we are, and what we are for. Traditional believers–among whom I count myself–suppose that there are answers to those questions, and that they can be found by prayerful examination of the Word of God in Scripture–and the world. Less traditional believers, reacting against the follies Read more

  • June reading notes

    In lieu of full-on book blogging, here are capsule reviews of some books I’ve read over the past month or so: A Moral Climate, Michael Northcott A theological ethicist and priest of the Episcopal Church of Scotland on climate change. Well-informed by the science (as far as I can judge), but also provides a specifically Read more