Tell me if this is slightly contradictory: experts often refuse to comment on what figures or movements are most important in our present, because “we lack the historical distance” to know their real significance. But experts also often bemoan our anachronism because we fail to enter into the life of the past when considering the [...]
Tags: anachronism, comparative considerations, distance, duty, historical perspective, past, Pragmatic, pragmatic considerations, present, responsibility, significance
Last night, I saw the Hughes Brothers’ new movie The Book of Eli. It’s been getting mixed reviews, and I honestly did not expect to like it very much.
I loved it. And now I desperately want to talk to people about it.
The problem is that the movie’s best kept secret (at least I didn’t know [...]
Tags: Abram, End of history, genesis, Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, science fiction, The Book of Eli
A while back, I posted about how each theologian needs to define theology in order to credibly proceed in his chosen science. In the ensuing comment-dialogue, it became apparent that back of my assertions lay a conception of two kinds of theology: frozen (or static) theology and progressive (or dynamic) theology. This conception seemed to [...]
Tags: church dogma, divine faith, intellectual knowledge, karl rahner, kinds of theology, nature of theology, rc church, revelation, sufficiency of scripture, theologian
One of my Thanksgiving break projects is to finish a paper comparing the views of Maimonides and Averroes on the relation of the truths of faith and philosophy. To that end, I’m reading the fabulous new biography of Maimonides by Joel Kraemer: Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds.
One of Maimonides [...]
Tags: ancients, averroes, civilization, collective self, concept of time, contemporaries, daylight savings time, earth revolves around the sun, kraemer, maimonides, nighttime, public interaction, sundials, twelve hours
One of the more interesting portions of my day involved contemplating the cultural effects of the Black Death on 14th century Europe. People got religion: flagellants took the burden of repentance upon themselves for the whole society, peasants took up prayer as lifeline rather than pastime or social custom. Art became full of memento mori: [...]
Tags: 14th century europe, black death, bocaccio, canterbury tales, chaucer, decameron, intellectual heritage, memento mori, Repentance, self centeredness, skeletons, story cycles, tombstones
