Post Secularism
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Commonplace Thinking
In classical rhetoric the terms 'commonplace' and 'ethos' are essential factors that if well understood and handled shape the construction and delivery of any message that is persuasive. It's never enough to be just right, you have to communicate what is right in your thinking in terms that "feel" right to the audience. Rhetoric is
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Some Thoughts on Christian Liberty
Whatever the nature of my politics, it should be clear that I am by no means a theological liberal. I acknowledge that in order to develop a high level of spiritual maturity, it is necessary to restrain one's open-ended freedom in order to submit to one kind or another of spiritual discipline, just as it
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Dying Traditions IIIb
The past is an abusive spouse that cultural conservatives have to divorce and then befriend for the sake of the children. Let me explain. A couple of weeks ago I posted Dying Traditions II which argued that Southerners who are trying to maintain their Southern Heritage are fundamentally mistaken, and then in a short post
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The “Lost” Sensibility
Heather Havrileski at Salon doesn't have it: Damn you, "Lost"! We went and jumped on your bandwagon way back in the first season, got sucked into your endless jungley maze and suspenseful chords, and waited breathlessly for the next shoe to drop, over and over again. Remember when that was still fun? Remember? Henry Gale's
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Walker Percy’s Postmodern Catholicism
Why was he a Catholic? Because he believed that the Church's teachings are true; and because the Church, in his view, stood above and apart from the present age, which he called the age of the "theorist-consumer." In his view, the present age has no use for anything that cannot be bought and sold or
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More on ‘Lost’ and Dante’s Island Down Under
About a month ago, I wrote a too long post about how Cuse's and Lindelof's Lost was an creative exercise in postmodern religious syncretism and mythopoesis, but leaning perhaps a little more heavily on retrieval themes from Dante and by extension Catholic iconography. I think after watching the finale last night, that assessment holds up
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The Zeitgeist of Unbelief
[Ed. note: I'll be revisiting several older posts with the idea of trying to regain my footing concerning the cultural-sphere themes that have always been the primary concern of ATF. Several of the key posts in this area are found in the "Don't Miss" section on the left side of the page. But I feel