A Thinking Reed

  • Friday Metal: Enslaved, “Alu Misyrki”

    The Norwegian progressive black metal band Enslaved, whose album Axioma Ethica Odini was one of the best releases of 2010, have put out a brand-new five-song EP called The Sleeping Gods. And the really cool thing? They’re giving it away for free! The EP is being distributed by Scion AV, which is an in-house record…

  • Thoughts on atonement (with some help from Gerald O’Collins, James B. Torrance, and C.S. Lewis)

    I’ve been reading and thinking about the Atonement (i.e., the work of Christ in reconciling us to God) again lately, so I thought I’d jot something down on how I see things. The view I’m now inclined toward is that “Abelardian” and “Anselmian” theories of atonement are complementary rather the mutually exclusive. An Abelardian view…

  • Friday Links

    –A challenge to libertarians on the coecivene power of private entities. –A.O. Scott on superhero movies as a Ponzi scheme. –Richard Beck of Experimental Theology on why he blogs. –A political typology quiz from the Pew Research Center. (I scored as a “solid libera.l” Although I’d take issue with the way some of the choices…

  • Friday Metal: Cynic double-header: “The Space for This” and “Adam’s Murmur”

    Traced in Air is such a great album, I had a hard time picking just one cut.

  • Cursing our enemies before God

    Given the debate over the last few days about whether it’s appropriate to be happy about, and even celebrate, the death of Osama bin Laden, I thought it would be worth revisiting Ellen Davis’s discussion of the cursing (imprecatory) psalms in her book Getting Involved with God. These psalms, which call God’s wrath down upon…

  • Drinking liberally

    I stopped by my local liquor store this evening in the hopes of getting my hands on a six-pack of the recently launched local beer DC Brau. Unfortunately, they were all sold out and didn’t expect to have any more in stock for a few weeks. (From what I gather, it’s been quite popular.) Of…

  • Justice, just war, and the killing of Osama bin Laden

    This story asks whether it’s wrong to celebrate bin Laden’s death. It quotes, among others, moral philosopher Christine Korsgaard who says: “Most people believe that the killing we do in war is justified as the only way to disable an enemy whose cause we believe to be unjust…. And although it is more controversial, many…

  • The prayer of suffering

    Another insightful passage from Ellen Davis on the Psalms: The preponderance of laments in the Book of Praises is a fruitful contradiction from which we can learn much. But we live with a second discrepancy that should trouble us more than it does; namely, the contrast between the biblical models of prayer and our own…

  • The First Amendment of faith

    The problem with [many common] notions of prayer is that we cannot have an intimate relationship with someone to whom we cannot speak honestly–that is, someone to whom we cannot show our ugly side, or those large clay feet of ours. We in this culture are all psychologically astute enough to know that honest, unguarded…

  • bin Laden

    Clearly no American is going to shed any tears for Osama bin Laden, me included. And based on the president’s statement last night, it sounds like the operation that got him was of the right kind–targeted, based on sound intelligence, avoiding both American and civilian casualties. If we’re going to fight terrorism, this is vastly…