In his 1996 book The Last Word philosopher Thomas Nagel makes what is nowadays an extremely unfashionable argument – namely, a full-blooded defense of a Platonic/Cartesian understanding of reason over against various pragmatist and postmodernist subjectivisms or skepticisms. Along the way he also raises questions of a theological nature about what it implies about the…

Via Dappled Things, what looks to be a very interesting blog written by a Muslim in the UK, Towards God Is Our Journey.

Here’s an interview with theologian Miroslav Volf, whose new book was just published (via Connexions). Volf has some interesting things to say about forgiveness: You speak of forgiveness in a way that I found novel and intriguing. You describe a forgiveness that is unconditional, and as such it is never offered – it must simply…

Two posts making the case for private confession among Protestants (Lutherans in particular in these cases). I’m certainly open to the idea, though I realize the chances of it happening any time soon are slim. I understand that Anglicans still maintain the practice.

Three Hierarchies, which is the blog of (I believe) a Missouri Synod Lutheran, has a very good post on Christian unity. Essentially he asks: What follows from the fact that we recognize other churches’ baptisms as valid?

Brendan O’Neill argues that Bin Laden’s rhetoric has become parasitical on Western arguments about the U.S. and its role in the Middle East; he’s gone from being obsessed with Saudi Arabia, to self-declared champion of Palestine, and, now in his most recent supposed message, he parrots many of the lines of the anti-war Left. What…

Jacob Weisberg writes: [T]he Senate hearings on NSA domestic espionage set to begin next month will confront fundamental questions about the balance of power within our system. Even if one assumes that every unknown instance of warrant-less spying by the NSA were justified on security grounds, the arguments issuing from the White House threaten the…

O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of your Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you…

Earlier I mentioned that the Bush administration has created some strange political bedfellows, evidenced by the American Prospect publishing articles by anti-war libertarians and running a glowing article about William Jennings Bryan, the bête noir of enlightened secularists. Now the American Conservative has published appreciations of George “Amnesty, Acid, and Abortion” McGovern and Eugene McCarthy.

I think that many Christians would want to affirm the following: 1. Slavation comes through Christ alone. 2. Members of non-Christian religions (or people who adhere to no relgion at all) can be saved (and at least some will be). The motives driving our affirmation of these two statements are, I think, a desire to…