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, [...]
On detachment: what religion can learn from science
Tamara Grizjuk, Detachment, 2002. From 29 November – 20 December, Ms. Grizjuk’s work will be on display at the Agora Gallery in Chelsea, NYC. I believe it will be her first show on this side of the Atlantic, so go check it out if you can. Image source: ARTmine. Used with permission of the artist [...]
In which I defend theological doohickey postmodernist BS
Benozzo Gozzoli, The Glory of Saint Thomas Aquinas. 1468-1484. Thomas, nearly as postmodern a chap as Nicholas of Cusa, was keenly aware of the difficulties inherent in all God-talk. He dealt with the problem up front in his Summa Theologica, forging a middle way between apophatic and cataphatic. We like him anyway. Source: Wikimedia Commons. The [...]
The shape of our ignorance: Catherine Keller on life’s contradictions
Catherine Keller. Image source: Vancouver School of Theology A couple of days ago there appeared, at Religion Dispatches, an interview with theologian Catherine Keller. I read some of Keller’s stuff as a seminary student and found her to be extremely challenging. She reads not unlike poetry. Over time, though, I began (I like to think) [...]
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 [...]
Buddha’s back
Image source: introductionbuddhism.info Pray allow me me a little self-disclosure. I am Christian in faith and practice. Nine hundred ninety-nine days out of a thousand, I don’t give serious thought to religions outside my own. I have had several opportunities to learn about Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc., some of them firsthand, but my understanding of [...]
Apophasis: Just the thing for beefy, well-fed liberals
Image courtesy of Jesus and Mo As I was poking about for images related to negative theology, I found this comic attached to a post at Why Evolution is True, biologist Jerry Coyne‘s blog. In said post, Coyne ridicules negative (apophatic) theology while avoiding saying what’s actually wrong with it. But the strip is pretty [...]
On sex and negative theology
Daniel Bonnell, Adam and Eve, 2011. Black crayon on grocery bag paper. See more of Bonnell’s works here. Used with permission of the artist Back in my physics grad school days I hung out with a lot of people who were students at the University’s divinity school. And several times, just for grins, I would [...]
On Christian atheism and (reverent) deconstruction
Oxymoron, by Camera Freak. By all accounts this guy in Hyde Park (London) is quite persistent. This picture was taken in 1998 and he was still at it in 2007. He may be there today. Apparently he sets up in a prominent location; have any Alert Readers ever seen him? Photo credit: Peter Gordon In [...]
So this guy eats some plums
The guy who ate the plums: William Carlos Williams‘s 1921 passport photo. Image source: Wikimedia Commons Look here to read William Carlos Williams’s poem This is Just to Say. Williams, the selfsame fellow who brought us the white chickens beside the red wheelbarrow, glazed with rainwater, published this piece in 1934. What is it about? [...]
