A Thinking Reed

  • The Fall and natural evil revisited, pt. 1

    Eric tipped me off to a great new theology blog, Ipsum Esse, written by a Catholic layman, David Walsh. David recently had two posts that generated some good discussion, one on evolution and the other on the idea of a “cosmic fall.” Longtime ATR readers will know that these are topics near and dear to…

  • Wednesday hip hop? – Public Enemy, “Harder Than You Think”

    A great new track from PE’s 20th anniversary album(!) How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???

  • The devil’s music

    I had to make note of this theological reflection on the lyrics of a Tool song if only because it lives at the rarely visited interstection of heavy metal fandom and Christian belief. Oh, and the album’s good too. On a somewhat related note, Beliefnet recently interviewed the former guitarist for Korn who converted to…

  • The need for enemies

    Conservative columnist Steve Chapman writes on the inflation of the Islamist threat and the way some people thrive on being part of a grand ideological crusade. Normal people, meanwhile, prefer to live in relative peace and freedom.

  • God and the taxman

    The September “issue” of the Jounal of Lutheran Ethics is now up, with a special focus on taxes, wealth, and poverty

  • How the meat industry thrives

    Quasi-monopoly, environmental degradation, and third-world style labor practices, according to this piece.

  • Friday metal – Living Colour, “Cult of Personality”

    Despite their unfortunate prediliction for day-glo outfits, these guys were/are an amazing band and this remains a terrific flat-out rock song by any standard.

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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.…