Subversive Christianity

• Can a Catholic be a Progressive? (Part I)

  As a practicing Catholic in the Dorothy Day/Daniel Berrigan/Oscar Romero/Thomas Merton wing of the Church, I'd argue that yes, of course, that Catholicism at its best, at its most mature, is always a progressive force in the world. But is it intellectually coherent for Catholic to align with a progressive political agenda? I think this

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• The Descent into Hell

  I was not aware of Religion Dispatches until reading the linked-to article about the 'Descent into Hell' reposted on Salon. It's a religious studies site that comes out of USC's Annenberg School. I was going to respond on site, but I decided instead to write this post, since it connects to my last post about the

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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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• Believing 2

  Earlier this week I tried to make the case that "believing" is what we all do when we give value, meaning, and purpose to our experience and to our work in the world.  Believing is fundamentally an irrational act. It draws upon resources that transcend what the brain/sense system can give us with certainty. The

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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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• Christian Liberty 2

  A talented musician can get so far just noodling away, say, on his violin or piano.  He might think he's pretty good, and he gets a lot of support to reinforce his high opinion of himself from people who don't know much about music. And so he is not likely to realize the full potential

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• Grace in the Wilderness

  If you want optimism, I don't have any for our society's  near future. But hope I have, and here's a repost of an essay that explains my reason for it: Barfield and Nietzsche start from the same place—a recognition that the transcendent values of the West have dried up as a living source of meaning in

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• Gyges’ Ring

  This American Life did a show some time ago about superpowers, and in Act One John Hodgeman asks which superpower, if only one were possible, would we choose–Invisibility or Flight. The answers given by people he interviewed were, I thought, rather depressing. One person talked about how she would choose Invisibility so that she could steal sweaters from

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• Depair as the Refusal to Become One’s Self

  …the specific character of despair is this: it is precisely unaware of being despair.  –Soren Kierkegaard, Sickness unto Death There is abundant chatter today about “being spiritual” but scarcely anyone believes that a person can be of troubled mind and healthy spirit. Nor can we fathom the idea that the happy wanderer, who is all smiles

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• Honor as a Destructive Recognition Fantasy

  The word 'honor' has mostly positive connotations for us–it's a good thing to be a man of honor, or to give one's word of honor. But I've always thought there was something fishy about honor and the honor culture from which it originates–it seemed to be too concerned with reputation and public perception rather than

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