A Thinking Reed

  • Teleology beyond biologism

    One addendum to the previous post. I noted that old-style “biological” teleology had largely fallen out of favor as a foundation for ethics. However, this doesn’t mean that Christian ethics can or should dispense with teleology altogether. I grazed this point when I said that “ultimate happiness consists in greater knowledge of and union with…

  • Creaturely goods and theistic ethics

    In comments to this post, Gaius asked some incisive questions about how a theist who accepts the general evolutionary picture of the world can avoid falling back on some form of divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism). The problem arises because, post-Darwin, it’s difficult to attribute inherent purposive-ness to natural processes. But the…

  • The end of the affair

    The flirtation between liberals and libertarians that arose out of shared anti-Bush animus is over, according to Ed Kilgore. The causes are an economically interventionist Democratic administration and the rightward pull exerted on libertarians by Tea Partyism. Not to mention, this Jonathan Chait piece that Kilgore links to seems like the definitive refutation of “liberaltarianism”…

  • What are they saying about sex?

    Following up on the Countryman series, I have to wonder: Where is the serious Christian teaching on premarital sex? Or the purpose of sexuality more generally? He sketches out some principles, but I don’t know that our churches (i.e., mainline Protestant one) are really teaching much in the way of a substantive sexual ethic. It…

  • Friday Metal: Return to relative normalcy edition

    As I Lay Dying, “Confined”:

  • Countryman: Principles for a Christian sexual ethic

    We saw earlier that Countryman argues that we can’t, because of the vast gulf that separates our social world from those of the Bible, simply apply “the Biblical ethic” to contemporary concerns. But does that mean that the Bible has nothing to say to us regarding sexual ethics? By no means! First, as already mentioned,…

  • Countryman on modern individualism

    One of the main reasons we can’t simply apply the “Biblical” sexual ethic (or ethics!) to our contemporary world, argues Countryman in Dirt, Greed & Sex (see the previous post), is that we have gone from a family-centered society to an individual-centered one. The property ethic that governed sexual relations in the ancient world existed…

  • Dirt, Greed & Sex

    Having been stuck at home for the better part of a week, I’ve had ample time to catch up on my reading. One book I finally got around to was L. William Countryman’s Dirt, Greed & Sex, a study of the sexual ethics of the New Testament. Countryman–a professor of New Testament and an Episcopalian–focuses…

  • Wish you were here

    From the (suddenly indispensable) Capital Weather Gang blog: We are living through some of the most extreme winter weather we’ll ever experience in the metro region this morning. Heavy snow, winds exceeding 40 mph, and true whiteout conditions have paralyzed the entire region and steady snow will continue for a couple more hours or so…

  • Friday Tuesday Metal: Snow Day Edition