Paul J. Griffiths reviews David B. Hart’s new book The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? (link via Mere Comments) From a Christian point of view, Mr. Hart notes, such events are quite easy to explain, if difficult to accept. They are dramatic instances of the fact that the world is…

Interesting piece from Radley Balko. As a believer in natural law I’m generally sympathetic.

Adam Kotsko makes a good point: there are plenty of good American beers. There’s Sierra Nevada, first of all, the official beer of the Chicago Theological Seminary. There’s Leinenkuegel’s — many varieties, made in nearby Wisconsin. Goose Island, 312 and Honker’s Ale, and who knows what other seasonal brews. Even PBR is kind of good,…

Doug Bandow reports on the messy aftermath of a war we launched against a country that didn’t threaten us, without UN approval, and at the behest of a president who acted unilaterally with few objections from a supine Congress that surrendered its constitutionally allotted war-making powers: The Kosovo war is over, but the peaceful resolution…

Much has been made of the fact that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ wife Jane has been affiliated with Feminists for Life. For some its a welcome (or unwelcome) confirmation of where Roberts himself may stand on the issue of abortion (side note: how good are a spouse’s political views or affiliations as a predictor…

Interesting LA Times article (via the wonderful Arts & Letters Daily) on the “death of cool.” Basically, people are sick of keeping up with the rat-race and one-upmanship involved in purusing every micro-trend that comes along in our increasingly splintered culture and are starting to pursue interests that they actually like and find personally fulfilling…

The New Atlantis has posted a new spate of articles. Of particular interest we have David B. Hart and Robert W. Jenson on John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.” Alan Bock asks if we’re seeing a sea change of opinion on Iraq and the broader aims of U.S. foreign entanglements. John at Confessing Evangelical…

One of the many evils war brings in its train, an evil we had thought long banished from our shores, is the scourge of prohibition. At least among our armed forces. This article by a civilian military employee is from the delightfully irreverent Modern Drunkard Magazine and discusses life on a dry (at least officially)…

William Placher is a Presbyterian theologian in the “postliberal” (Hans Frei, George Lindbeck) tradition, but one who actually writes in a very clear and accessible style. A theologian writing for laymen rather than other academics! Imagine! (I’m looking at you, John Milbank.) Anyway, I’ve gotten a lot out of Placher’s writing. His book The Domestication…

When I was in college I reviewed John Shelby Spong’s Why Christianity Must Change or Die for our undergraduate philosophy journal. Though I didn’t consider myself a Christian (or even a theist) at the time, I was flabbergasted by Spong’s sloppy arguments which were full of straw-men, distortions, and ad hominem attacks. I knew that…