I’ve never really given much thought to the medieval debate between Franciscans and Dominicans about whether the Incarnation would’ve taken place if humankind hadn’t sinned. I guess it always struck me as a classically “scholastic” debate (in the pejorative sense). But now I’m not so sure. It seems that which position one takes could have…

From USA Today: The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY. The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the…

There’s an interesting discussion going on over at the Generous Orthodoxy/Thinktank site about whether the so-called Emerging Church “conversation” or “movement” or whatever it is should have some kind of formal creed or doctrinal statement. Now, all I know about the Emerging Church stuff is what I’ve read and I can’t say that much of…

I just finished reading Andrew Linzey’s Animal Theology. Linzey, a Church of England priest and theologian is also a long-time animal rights activist. His book presents a strong challenge to Christians who think of animal rights as a concern confined to the likes of PETA and Peter Singer, and who see concern for animals as…

Jonathan Norman at the blog The Phaith of St. Phransus posted a series of links to a very good radio interview with Stanley Hauerwas, focusing mainly on pacifism/non-violence as a normative stance for Christians. As always with Hauerwas, I find myself agreeing with a lot of what he says, and disagreeing some. In particular think…

Philosopher Peter Singer has just published a new book, The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter (Is it just me, or does there seem to be a lot of talk about food lately? Crunchy Cons, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, an entire issue of Sojourners dedicated to the topic; people seem to have food on…

This seems like good news: Sudan’s government said yesterday that its peace accord with Darfur’s main insurgent group allowed it to welcome U.N. peacekeepers to the troubled region, as mediators worked to persuade the rest of the fractured rebel movement to join the process. The peace agreement, reached Friday in Abuja with one branch of…

Lucasfilms is releasing the original unaltered Star Wars trilogy on DVD this fall. Yes, I am a sucker and will buy them. I actually don’t mind most of the changes that were made for the special edition versions that came out in the late 90s. Though, I could do without the CGI musical number in…

This is neat – the BBC has made one of C.S. Lewis’s wartime radio addresses available online. This is apparently the only surviving one; the broadcasts were ultimately published as Mere Christianity. They also have a clip of him introducing The Great Divorce. Via Christianity Today.

Below I talked a bit about a certain leftward drift in my political outlook over the last few years. Another impetus for my move away from certain mainstream conservative positions, I think, has to do with trying to work out a consistent ethic of life. For about as long as I’ve given these things any…