By now you’re familiar with the trope: Jesus-loving Bush-voting red-staters love Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, while godless hippie anti-Americans dig on Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9/11 (editorial disclaimer: I haven’t seen either). And yet: Mr. Moore and Mel Gibson, whose “Passion of the Christ” won for motion picture drama, are fans of each…

Reagan was pals with Sinatra. George H. W. Bush had the Oak Ridge Boys. Clinton had Fleetwood Mac. And now this. Need I say more?

Catholic Eve Tushnet posts on why she finds traditional pre-written prayers helpful. Very good points I think. A sample: Traditions remind us of the things we wouldn’t say of our own accord. Most times, when I pray the Hail Mary or the Angelus or what have you, I find that the words of the prayer…

The return of death squads? (via Unqualified Offerings) I realize that it’s possible to spin all kinds of arguments where things like this seem “necessary” (along with torture, killing civilians, etc.). But surely the deeper question is what kind of people do we want to be? Of course, there are those who would say that…

Continuing our discussion of John Baillie’s views on revelation (see here) let’s turn to his thoughts on the Bible as the vehicle for revelation. Recall that for Baillie, revelation is God’s self-disclosure to humanity, and that this self-disclosure is mediated through the events of salvation history as they are interpreted and understood by the prophetic…

An account of these two much-neglected Christian practices.

Daily Kos is one of the biggest liberal/Democratic blogs out there (or so I’m told), which makes this all the more interesting: I have been a militant atheist all my life. Not militant in wanting to destroy religion, but in keeping it out of the public sphere. But I have come to a conclusion recently…

A critique in three parts at Disputations: 1, 2, 3.

Here’s a juicy post from Brian Weatherson (via this Weatherson post at Crooked Timber (which was also cross-posted at his personal blog – got that?)). The gist: Let’s assume the following metaphysical claims are all true. There is a class of abstract possible worlds W. (I’m not going to say what abstract and concrete amount…

One of the risks of writing as an amateur or dilettante is that you run the risk of saying something that seems to you like a sparklingly original insight but in fact is territory that has been well-covered by specialists. On the other hand, there is a gratification in discovering an idea you’ve grasped your…