A Thinking Reed

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

Theology

  • C.S. Lewis’s theology of animals

    I found this article by Andrew Linzey while searching for something yesterday. Good stuff. I reviewed Linzey’s Animal Theology here. Read more

  • Is our atheists learning?

    Thomas wonders why high profile atheist provocateurs like Richard Dawkins seem to know so little about the religions they criticize and frequently traffic in straw-man arguments. He also excerpts a take down of Dawkins’ latest book by agnostic Thomas Nagel.* Scientific popularizers like Dawkins often seem to think that their expertise in one field translates Read more

  • The theologian as amateur economist

    Usually any book review symposium will have a mix of negative and positive reviews, but the one on Kathryn Tanner’s Economy of Grace in the most recent Journal of Lutheran Ethics – not exactly a right-wing rag – has four pretty scathing reviews. In fairness, I haven’t read Prof. Tanner’s book, but if these reviews Read more

  • Ward on Original Sin and Atonement

    Previously we saw Keith Ward offer an account of original sin that he thinks consistent with a broad evolutionary picture. As a result of a primal choice for evil and turning away from God, the human race finds itself estranged from God and unable to repair the breach. Ward distinguishes between what he calls “forensic” Read more

  • Evolution, the Fall, and Original Sin

    I enjoyed Keith Ward’s Pascal’s Fire so much (despite disagreement in places) that when I saw his Religion and Human Nature at a used bookseller for five bucks I snatched it up. RHN is part of Ward’s four-part “comparative theology” which also includes volumes on revelation, creation, and community. His methodology is to compare the Read more

  • We’re all liberals now(?)

    This helpful post at Connexions argues that “liberal theology” should be seen more as a method or approach to theology than a set of substantive conclusions. In other words, there’s nothing about liberal theology per se that prevents one from, say, believing in the resurrection or the virgin birth or what have you. What’s distinctive Read more

  • Pope notes

    A round up of Muslim bloggers’ responses to Pope Benedict’s speech (via Fr. Jim Tucker). The pope’s address is well worth reading quite apart from the ensuing brouhaha. Of particular interest to me is his association of a voluntarist view of the divine nature and various programs of “de-Hellenization” with certain forms of Protestantism. Luther Read more

  • "String conjecture"?

    Thomas at Without Authority, himself an honest-to-goodness scientist, points us to this article from Gregg Easterbrook about a new book arguing that string theory isn’t really science, but something more like metaphysical speculation. I’d be the last one to claim anything more than a layman’s knowledge of current physics (at best), but it has always Read more

  • Universalism

    I have to say this is something that I’ve never really felt the need to have a position on. Taking an definitive stance on either side (i.e. positively affirming that everyone will be saved or that not everyone will be saved) seems underdetermined by the evidence. There are more or less plausible theological arguments one Read more

  • Ward on creationism and ID

    VI favorite Keith Ward has an article in The Tablet (registration req’d) on intelligent design and creationism (via). He distinguishes between belief that the universe was designed in the sense that all theists accept, namely that its existence and structure is the result of a purposive intelligence, and the narrower sense promoted by Intelligent Design Read more