A Thinking Reed

  • JPII and Gerhard Forde on the Scandal of the Cross

    I have this feeling that I’ve posted on this before at the old blog, but I was flipping through Pope John Paul II’s Crossing the Threshold of Hope this weekend, and found him to have some illuminating things to say about the mystery of the Cross. The book is written in a kind of Q&A…

  • Kyrie eleison

    This is just horrible.

  • Current ATR candidate rankings (subject to change at my whim)

    Here are my current (extremely lukewarm) preferences for presidential candidates in both parties, confining myself to the declared major candidates*, from most to least preferred: Dems: 1. Richardson 2. Edwards 3. Obama 4. Clinton GOP: 1. Romney 2. McCain 3. Guliani At this point none of the GOP candidates rise close enough to the level…

  • Some metal for the weekend

    Here’s the first single, “Redemption,” from the just-released Shadows Fall album Threads of Life. Good stuff. It’s always fun to read reviews from die-hard fans who are horrified that the singer is – ugh- singing! Sell outs! I’m pretty sure this line of criticism is unique to the genre.

  • Augustine, just war, prevention, preemption, etc.

    Chris at Even the Devils Believe has a follow-up on the question of preemptive/preventive war & Just War Theory. He riffs on an article from the Journal of Religious Ethics that discusses Augustine’s view of these matters (not available online, alas).

  • More from McKibbon

    A while back I blogged a couple of items on the argument Bill McKibbon makes in his new book Deep Economy for rethinking our commitment to growth uber alles. Interested readers may want to check out this article at Mother Jones where McKibbon develops his argument at greater length. In short, the argument is that…

  • Lutheran World Federation – following in the footsteps of the Anglican Communion?

    The Christian Century has a brief article on tensions in the Lutheran World Federation over … suprise! Homosexuality! As in the Anglican Communion, the split is largely along north/south lines. However, I think it’s unlikely that we’ll see the same level of acrimony that the Anglican Communion has experienced. Lutherans, in my admittedly limited experience,…

  • Interview with the blogger

    As part of promoting the Christian Peace Bloggers webring, Michael Westmoreland-White has been conducting e-interviews with the various bloggers involved. Here’s his interview with yours truly.

  • Preemption, prevention, and the Pope

    Michael Novak and Richard John Neuhaus have both offered some critical comments on Pope Benedict’s Easter address where Benedict reiterated (by implication, at least) some of his criticisms of the Iraq war. Novak has consistently remained a steadfast supporter of President Bush, so his comments aren’t particularly novel or surprising; he offers the now-cliched rebuttal…

  • The “hegemonist consensus”

    Good article from Jim Pinkerton about how little evidence there is that Chuck Hagel, despite his criticisms of the Bush administration, would dissent from what Pinkerton calls the “hegemonist consensus” shared by elites of both parties. Only “fringe” candidates like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich seem willing to question this consensus. That said, Hagel certainly…