A Thinking Reed

  • The Groaning of Creation 6: Priests of creation

    Having offered an account of why God permits the suffering and frustated lives of so many non-human animals, Southgate turns to the question of what role humans might play in alleviating their plight. Key to his understanding once again is the notion of creation in travail, or “groaning.” Creation is good, but it’s destined to…

  • Peter J. Gomes on Colbert

    Video here. (HT: Chris) I saw him preach once at the Harvard chapel “lessons and carols” Christmas service. His preaching was much more full of Jesus than I expected a service at Harvard to be.

  • Come on in, conservatives; the water’s fine

    For whatever reason, this post, A Conservative for Obama, has been getting a lot of traffic recently. Are there still disaffected conservatives out there who haven’t drunk the McPalin kool-aid and are looking for a reason to vote Dem? Here’s a good place to start: conservative historian–and self-described “Obamacon”–Andrew Bacevich on NPR’s Fresh Air. Among…

  • The Groaning of Creation 5: Heaven can wait

    As we saw in the previous post, Southgate affirms some kind of afterlife as an eschatological recompense for non-human animals who were deprived of the opportunity to flourish in this life, a strategy taken by many theodicies that focus on human suffering. But, as Southgate recognizes (and as we’ve discussed here before), “if an altered…

  • The Groaning of Creation 4: There’s a wideness in God’s mercy

    In Chapter 5, Southgate directly takes up the question of an afterlife for non-human animals. This is another main plank in his evolutionary theodicy, alongside the “only way” argument. Even given that the evolutionary process is necessary to give rise to the values of finite creatures, countless animals still lead lives best described in Hobbes’…

  • The Groaning of Creation 3: God so loved the world

    In Chapter 4, Southgate develops a trinitarian “theology of creation,” an admittedly speculative enterprise that seeks to shine some light on the relationship between the triune God and an evolutionary process that operates according to Darwinian principles. Taking up the theme of kenosis, Southgate suggests that God’s self-emptying love is foundational both to intra-trinitarian relationships…

  • Friday metal – the boys are back in town edition

    I’m about one-third of the way through the new Metallica disc, “Death Magnetic,” and so far I’m very pleased. I had abandoned hope that there would be another good album from them in my lifetime. I might write up some more thoughts later, maybe with a broader appreciation of the band I started listening to…

  • “Idolatry and fear”

    Wonderful post from Kim Fabricius at “Connexions.” UPDATE: See part II, prompted by a comment from yours truly.

  • Why I won’t vote third party

    Looks like Ron Paul, whom some of his supporters hoped would make a third-party run for president, is urging people who are sick of war, assaults on civil liberties, and, er, the Fed to vote for a third party–any third party! I appreciate the arguments that the two major parties and their candidates are either…

  • On the radio: Greenwald and Yglesias

    Very interesting discussion between Salon’s Glenn Greenwald and uber-blogger Matt Yglesias on the press’s coverage of the campaign. But one of the most important points comes out toward the end where Greenwald and Yglesias both agree that the Obama campaign has, disappointingly, shifted gears since the primary, where Obama seemed to welcome a debate with…