Israeli archaeologists say they have discovered what may be the oldest Christian church in the Holy Land on the grounds of a prison near the biblical site of Armageddon.The Israeli Antiquities Authority said the ruins were believed to date back to the third or fourth century and include references to Jesus and images of fish,…

As an early birthday present my lovely wife gave me Dressed in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash, which features cover versions of mostly early songs by a variety of what you might call neo-traditionalist country artists like Robbie Fulks and Hank Williams III. It’s really excellent. And, as it happens, the Johnny Cash biopic…

Even though I think I have every single track scattered among half a dozen or so CDs and cassettes (yes, Virginia, we used to have these things called cassette tapes), I’m pretty tempted by this. Everything is remastered, and I have to admit that the production on State of Euphoria in particular is pretty crummy.…

New contributor at Right Reason, Christopher Tollefsen, offers an intriguing argument that (a certain kind of) opposition to abortion has nothing to do with conservatism per se and, in fact, might be best seen as a legacy of modernity and liberalism Tollefsen suggests that “conservative” arguments against abortion, such as those that rely on tradition…

Camassia is talking about Original Sin and children, and points to some of the difficulties many people have with the idea that children are capable of evil. Whatever we may think about his doctrine of Original Sin, I think Augustine was closer to the truth than many moderns in seeing that children are capable of…

Turns out Paul’s Letter to the Romans is, well, hard to understand. I read it, and it’s like the words are just bouncing off my brain. Can any readers recommend a good commentary or other secondary literature? I’m thinking something substantial, but not so scholarly that it requires facility in three or four ancient languages…

Millinerd has an excellent post that almost exactly matches my take on “postmodernism”: DesCartes’ all-or-nothing philosophy thought that any knowledge not based on absolute certainty was worthless. And because Descartes thought he could establish such certainty, the light switch of absolute knowledge was flipped on… yielding the Enlightenment. Postmodernists swing to the opposite pole, claiming…

The Christian Century has an article on the “new monasticism” – a budding movement of Christians forming intentional communities, pooling resources, and trying to act as witnesses in some of the poorer areas of the U.S. (see also this article from Christianity Today). As much as I admire people who do things like this, I…

I still don’t know much about Judge Alito, but this collection of quotes from accross the political spectrum indicates that he’s not the “Scalia clone” he’s been made out to be.

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State are concerned about President Bush’s nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court: [Barry] Lynn noted that research by Americans United’s Legal Department uncovered two cases dealing with government-sanctioned display of religious symbols, with Alito upholding the religious displays both times. In another case, Alito ruled…