Flannery O’Connor and the end of all things
Barry Moser, Flannery O’Connor (detail). Wood engraving. See the original at moser-pennyroyal.com. Used with permission of the artist The First Sunday of Advent. That was yesterday. And what a Sunday it was. Julie’s sermon was taken from Malachi. Malachi! Can you imagine?! I almost fell over when I saw that. The passage (3.1-3) reads, See, [...]
Repost: Door by door
Dear Alert Readers, This was first published, in a slightly longer form, several months ago. I am reposting it because it really fits my mood these days. Hope all is well with you and yours. Paul Doorway in Galileo’s villa. I took this photo in 2003 when I visited Arcetri, a small village just to [...]
The magnificent defeat
Jack Baumgartner, Jacob Wrestling the Angel of the Lord (2010). Used by permission of the artist The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he [...]
On upper-class medieval persons, Bronze-Age goat herders, and semi-enlightened Englishmen, featuring full-color illustrative proof of the Bronze-Age Goat Herder Conceit
Almost enlightened, but not quite: Sir Frederick William Herschel, artist unknown. Image source: Wikimedia Commons “Imagine we could revive a well-educated Christian of the fourteenth century. The man would prove to be a total ignoramus, except on matters of faith. His beliefs about geography, astronomy, and medicine would even embarrass a child, but he would [...]
McGrath and McGrath on the insufficiency of science
Alister McGrath. Image source: Wikimedia Commons Alister McGrath says a lot of things that make sense. And when he joins up with his wife, Joanna Collicutt McGrath, things get even better. Back in 2007 the couple published an utterly generous and blessedly short response to Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion. Entitled The Dawkins Delusion?, it [...]
And to think, I almost liked Sam Harris
Sam Harris c. 2007. Image source: Wikimedia Commons I have just finished reading Sam Harris‘s The End of Faith. And for some reason, coming after my rereading of The God Delusion as it did, I kind of liked it. Harris seems, on the whole, less simplistic and more thoughtful than Dawkins. Plus, he never bothers [...]
Notes on my delusion
Not deluded, apparently: Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1800. Jefferson is quoted by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion thus: “Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” I wonder if Jefferson knew that orthodox Christian [...]
More Rohr
Fr. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan of the New Mexico Province. He was the founder of the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1971, and the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1986, where he presently serves as Founding Director. Image source: Silence in the City Since I last posted [...]
Smelling the flowers just quietly: Ferdinand on life
Ferdinand loves flowers, and for all the right reasons. A scene from Munro Leaf‘s classic children’s book The Story of Ferdinand. Ferdinand, unlike his peers, has no interest in butting his head and “sticking his horns around”; he prefers to spend his days sitting “under the cork tree, smelling the flowers just quietly.” Image source: [...]
Sacred cows and other imaginary friends
Vivek Sood, Kamadhenu, 1989. Kamadhenu, mother of cows, is prominent in Hindu mythology. She is associated with the Brahmin caste because of her wealth, and has been known to feed large armies at critical times. Mr. Sood’s art is quite evocative, and I encourage you to peruse his gallery here. Image courtesy of the artist [...]
