Metahistory
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Nunes/Bannon Mind Rebuttal, Part 2
For the most part, however, the changes that occurred at around this period [the Renaissance] do suggest the salience of primarily the right hemisphere’s world. One of the defining features of the Renaissance must be its opening of the eyes to experience, initially almost exclusively personal experience, in preference to what is ‘known’ to be
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The Coming Discontinuity: A Theological Reflection through the Sensibility of a Progressive Catholic
I realize that in this moment the idea of recovering a Catholic sensibility is so much spitting in the wind, but nevertheless, in the long run something like it is called for because without a restoration of a sense of the sacramental, the machines win. I'll come back to defend this assertion toward the end.
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History & Meaning
Custom is our nature. What are our natural principles but principles of custom?–Blaise Pascal The growing rush and the disappearance of contemplation and simplicity from modern life [are] the symptoms of a complete uprooting of culture. The waters of religion retreat and leave behind pools and bogs. The sciences . . . atomize old beliefs.
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The Meaning of History in 25 Theses
“The Word of God [the Logos] became a human so that you may learn from a human how a human may become God.”–Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, 1.8.4.7-9 For what follows to make sense, the reader must be at least relatively open to the idea that ancient Greek speculative metaphysics from Heraclitus through Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the
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When the Party’s Over
We are a country now in the hands of deeply deluded people, people who are living in bubbles, whose minds are addled by chronic cognitive dissonance at best or at worst an addiction to power and wealth. Electing sane people to fix things in Washington isn’t a solution because it’s like sending a sober person
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A Word on Rene Girard and Gil Bailie
What those who repeat the cliche about the similarity between the crucifixion and the "Dionysus-Orpheus-Bacchus" myths fail to see is that the Gospels tell the story of the crucifixion from the point of view of the victim. The Gospels make it perfectly clear that the righteous mob, and the political and religious functionaries that kowtowed
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Silicon Valley Utopian Nerdthink
In five years, an estimated 5.9 billion people will own smartphones. Anyone who can code, or who has something to sell, can be a free agent on the global marketplace. You can work from anywhere on your laptop and talk to anyone in the world; you can receive goods anywhere via drone and pay for
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Mythos and Logos 3
In “The Battle for God,” Karen Armstrong illuminates a slightly different, though related, difference, contrasting the modalities of mythos and logos. As Armstrong explains, logos is concerned with the practical understanding of how things work in the world, while mythos is concerned with ultimate meaning. Either modality can be used by liberals and conservatives alike in their everyday lives. But macro-historically, there’s
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The Silicon Valley Flood
The culture of Silicon Valley today sits somewhere on the autistic spectrum and exhibits the elemental qualities of water. Water will always find its way, it will find the unseen cracks, and find ways through obstacles and even tear them down, as a tiny leak can bring down a mighty dam. Water is an amazing
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Sacramental Semiotics
For what does elemental matter–the microscopic stuff of stars, planets and DNA molecules–look like in a post-Einsteinian universe? The first thing to say, I suppose, is that matter is bound or condensed energy, captured from the torrential, buzzing flow set loose by the big bang. Just as water moves through a whirlpool and simultaneously creates