Category: Culture
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What Do Words Mean in a One-Storey Universe?
It seems to me that much of our religious vocabulary, defined many times within the past 500 years, is enculturated to speak a two-storey world (see the previous post for an explanation of two-storey world). Words such as “faith,” “believe,” and their relatives belong somehow to a portion of the world that is not first-storey.…
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Death in a Two-Storey Universe
I have written before about the two-storey universe that is part of our cultural inheritance in the modern world. I have noted that the default position of our culture is secular protestantism. I have explained that I mean not that we do not believe in God, but that in our dominant cultural metaphor the God…
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A Good Word on the Feast of the Transfiguration
The following excerpt is from Ocholophobist’s Website, as always well-written. It’s an excellent meditation for the feast. Fr. Hopko speaks of the fact that when one encounters holiness, if it is indeed holiness one is encountering, one will be filled with both fear and a desire to stay in the presence of that holy place,…
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Another Wall Street Journal Article on Belief in the Modern World
This article also recently appeared in the WSJ. It is an interesting take on Christianity in Europe, where, we are constantly told, it is almost completely dead. Perhaps the obituaries are premature. Comments are off for this article.
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An Interesting Read on the “New New Atheism”
David Berkowitz, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, has an interesting article on the “New New Atheism” worth a read for any who have been following discussions on belief and atheism here on Glory to God for All Things. Comments are off for this article.
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Where I Saw Beauty
Beauty is a deeply theological word. In both Hebrew and Greek, when God creates the world He says: “It is good (beautiful).” The word carries both meanings. I believe that to encounter Beauty is, in some way to encounter God, for it simply transcends our ability to comprehend, to challenge or even to recreate. I have…
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God is Wonderful in His Saints
The painting of St. Sergius as a youth by Mikhail Nesterov is one of my favorites. Just a bit more beauty to share.
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Revisiting the Problem of Goodness
I first wrote and published this reflection back in May. It seemed relevant to recent discussions. I have added an additional reflection at the end that I think is worthwhile. I hope you find this useful. From my first class in Philosophy 101 in college, the so-called “Problem of Evil” has been tossed up as…
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Why We Don’t Believe In God
A note: This article has been described by someone on a blog reference site as a description of why atheists don’t believe in God. Apparently they haven’t read the article. Throughout I use the pronoun “we” because I am not talking about non-believers, per se, but about both believers and unbelievers. I have not spared myself…
Yes Jenny, thank you so much. Your story is a healing balm and inspiring testimony all wrapped into one. Thank…