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How the meat industry thrives
Quasi-monopoly, environmental degradation, and third-world style labor practices, according to this piece.
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Lutheran Forum online
Pastor Clint Schnekloth of Lutheran Confessions alerts us to the new website of Lutheran Forum, “an independent theological quarterly for clergy and laity” with authors “belong[ing] to the ELCA and LCMS, as well as Lutheran church bodies across the world.” I thought this article by Philip H. Pfatteicher on the new ELCA and LCMS worship…
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Questions for Lutherans (and others)
Thomas at Without Authority posted recently on the raison d’etre of Protestant denominations. He raised the idea, favored by Lutheran theologians like Jenson and Braaten that Lutheranism is, in essence, a reforming movement within the church catholic. My question, especially to Lutheran readers, is this: Do you still regard the gospel of justification by faith…
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Isn’t “blogging elite” a contradiction in terms?
To me, the most interesting part of this WSJ piece on DC’s new ‘blogging elite’ is this: “D.C. ranks as the fourth ‘bloggiest’ city in the U.S., behind Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.” Seriously? Pennsylvania represent! My home state gets mad blog props. Also, note that the four “bloggiest” cities are all cities I’ve lived in.…
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God and the evolving universe
I’m glad to see that First Things made Avery Dulles’ article on God and evolution available as this month’s free article. Dulles distinguishes three (non-creationist) approaches to evolution: theistic evolutionism which sees the process of evolution as the outworking of inherent properties of the universe established by God, Intelligent design, which claims that certain particular…
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Vote randomizer
According to this quiz my candidate is Dennis Kucinich, with whom I apparently agree on 60% of the issues. Of course I was also informed that my answers resulted in a tie between Kucinich and Ron Paul and that the final result was randomly selected. So, in the event that Kucinich and Paul end up…
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The anti-utopian
Nice profile (from a couple of months ago) of the eclectic and eccentric British political thinker John Gray. I’ve always found Gray’s stuff fascinating, and this piece puts his various ideological twists and turns (from Thatcherite neo-liberal, to skeptic of neo-liberalism, to all-around pessimist) in context. (Found here.)
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Scapegoats, sacrifice, and the “violence” of God
In addition to the other books I’ve been juggling, this weekend I started reading James Alison’s Raising Abel, which carries the subtitle “Recovering the Eschatological Imagination.” Alison is a great writer and offers some startling insights that bring new life to seemingly obscure theological concepts, but here I want to think a little bit about…
A Thinking Reed 