A Thinking Reed

  • Notes on Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo: 2

    It’s interesting that in Book One, chapters VI and VII it’s Boso who gets to critique one of the more widespread theories of the Atonement at the time of Anselm’s writing, the so-called Ransom theory favored by several of the Fathers. In a nutshell, the Ransom theory teaches that, by sinning, humankind had put iself…

  • Notes on Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo: 1

    As a sort of Lenten-ey thing I’m re-reading St. Anselm‘s Cur Deus Homo, his famous (infamous in some circles) treatise on the reason for the Incarnation and how it effects our salvation. So, I thought I would post a series of notes on things that strike me. This won’t be a systematic exposition, which would…

  • The church that prays together…

    Since last fall I’ve been helping to facilitate a small community group that meets about once a week primarily to study the Bible (we typically read and discuss the Gospel lesson for the upcoming Sunday), pray and socialize. I guess it’s a “small group” in the parlance of evangelicalism. Anyway, one of the things I…

  • Radicalism vs. gradualism on responding to climate change

    This is where I, as a layman, get lost. Bill McKibben and others argue that we’re in the middle of a catastrophe in the making and that only radical changes in our way of life can mitigate the disaster. Meanwhile, Jonathan Rauch admits that climate change is a real and harmful phenomenon, but argues that…

  • More on growth, happiness, and climate change

    Following up on yesterday’s post, here’s an interview with Bill McKibbon that fleshes out some of his economic ideas a bit more. McKibbon uses the term “deep economy” (the title of his new book) to describe an economy that tends to draw in its supply lines instead of extend them. It produces using more people…

  • I always knew I was special

    E-mailed to me from a friend: “Heavy metal ‘a comfort for the bright child’” Intelligent teenagers often listen to heavy metal music to cope with the pressures associated with being talented, according to research. The results of a study of more than 1,000 of the brightest five per cent of young people will come as…

  • Religious trend-spotting

    Interesting interview with Philip Jenkins, probably best known for his excellent The Next Christendom, on the future of Christianity, Islam in Europe, terrorism, American religiosity, etc. The thing I like about Jenkins is that, although he tends to write for conservative publications, he strikes me as first and foremost a patient social scientist, not someone…

  • Can we do without growth?

    Bill McKibben writes in the LA Times of the need, primarily for environmental reasons, to cure ourselves of our addiction to economic growth (“Growth is the ideology of the cancer cell,” Edward Abbey once wrote). But my question is this: is is possible to have an economy that is both sustainable and wealth-creating? There are…

  • Saintly miscellania

    I don’t think that I linked to LutherPunk’s good discussion of invoking the saints. Here it is. Also, coinciding with the Feast of the Assumption Annunciation (duh!), Steven Charleston, former bishop of Alaska and Dean and President of the Episcopal Divinity School, is going to be speaking at our parish’s adult education forum this Sunday…

  • Ill-informed prediction

    Al Gore will be the Democrats’ nominee in ’08. With Edwards possibly stepping out of the race, the southern progressive spot will be wide open for Gore to jump in. Gore has neither HRC’s baggage from the war nor Obama’s inexperience. In fact, Gore has hands down more experience than anyone else in the race.…