A Genealogy of Christianity
For this semester I’ll offer my reflections on an introductory, freshmen-level course on western core texts that I am teaching. Christianity for Nietzsche was the greatest catastrophe…
Leo Strauss on Nazism: A Theologico-Political Interpretation
Leo Strauss was one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century, in large part because he undertook a systematic reexamination of the meaning of…
What Is This Thing Called Virtue?
Believe it or not, in at least one specific area public discourse in the United States is a bit better than it was a few decades ago.…
The Real Season of Giving
Complaints about “materialism” at Christmas have never really bothered me. For those who believe in the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation, there is a real lesson about…
Fear, Dust, and Water: A Look Into T.S. Eliot’s Poetic Imagery
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us…
Law and Natural Right: On John 9’s Parable of the Blind Man
John 9 offers us the memorable “parable” of the blind saved by Jesus.[1] The savior teaches us that the saved man was blind from birth “so that…
Girard and the Scapegoat
Introduction On another occasion,[1] I employed Hesiod’s contradictory characterizations of Saturn in the Theogony and Works and Days to inquire into the seeming paradox of a filicidal…
Being Called Beyond the Wall
The Four Wise Men. Michel Tournier (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1997). The gospel stories are about movement—Jesus comes to a town, crosses to the…
Christians, Jews, and The Great Rift
I prefer to think of that world-historical-fault-line as a long, reparable misunderstanding. Whether or not that’s the right view, personally I want to patch it up. Yet…
Science and Religion Revisited: A Provocative Lesson for Today’s Christians
For decades, now, debates on “Science versus Religion” have remained by and large inconclusive.[1] Could this be due to the debates’ having been systematically framed conceptually by…
Christian Faith and Friendship in the Academy
I thank the organizers for inviting me to discuss our theme, how Christian faith can inform friendships in the academy. As I begin, I would invite all…
Raimon Panikkar’s Christophany: Living in the Pilgrimage of Incarnation
Raimon Panikkar (1918-2010) was a Catholic Priest with family roots in Spain and India. He was an accomplished scholar in a variety of fields who was comfortable…
Etienne Gilson’s The Metamorphoses of the City of God
The Metamorphoses of the City of God. Etienne Gilson, translated by James G. Colbert. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2020. In Etienne Gilson’s The…
Christianity and Globalism
Human culture owes its existence to the shedding of innocent blood. However, Christianity reveals the scapegoat mechanism. The supporters of Jesus defied the majority and vocally protested…
Literature and the Apotheosis of the Soul
Books have been under assault for a long time. Mass media and television, as Ray Bradbury imagined with dystopian prophecy, was just getting the fire started. Then…