Tag: Christianity

ISSUE #43 | DEC 2023, Religion

Love and Logos: The Wind and Sail of Human Existence

There are two things that guide humanity: reason and love.  Humans alone can use language and rational deliberation, as Aristotle observes: “All men by nature desire to know.”  In his philosophy, we determine through reason how virtue is a tempered response between two extremes. It leads to eudaimonia—happiness in life—through this kind of rational deduction, and makes up the telos of human existence.  In this … Continue reading Love and Logos: The Wind and Sail of Human Existence

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From the Faculty, ISSUE #43 | DEC 2023

Priesthood as Craft, Not Science

I remember reading an essay by a fellow ex-seminarian critiquing our former institution and its late rector for alleged failures to provide adequate emotional support to young men, for its rigid notions of masculinity, and other such micro-aggression. Coming from a center-left place, his article only differed in details, but not in essence, from the right-wing critiques of seminaries as dens of sodomy yielding the … Continue reading Priesthood as Craft, Not Science

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ISSUE #40 | MAR 2023, Religion

Personifying the World

At the end of his short work on prayer, the north African theologian Tertullian wrote something surprising about non-human animals: “The whole creation prays,” he said. Cattle and wild beasts pray, and bend their knees, and in coming forth from their stalls and lairs look up to heaven, their mouths not idle, making the spirit [or breath] move in their own fashion. Moreover the birds … Continue reading Personifying the World

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ISSUE #40 | MAR 2023, Religion

We All Have an Agrarian Purpose

For most modern Americans, the idea of agrarian living is woefully antiquated. With supercomputers in our pockets and self-driving tractors in the fields, picking up a shovel to plant vegetables seems like unnecessary work. Supply chain issues and global catastrophes notwithstanding, why worry about growing food when Kroger’s shelves are fully stocked and Walmart is always open? This attitude towards food production reveals the fractured … Continue reading We All Have an Agrarian Purpose

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ISSUE #39 | DEC 2022, Religion

To Feel and to Hold: Touch as a Love Language

“‘Put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth…’” (Genesis 24:2, NAB). This is one of those verses where even the Christians have to ask: “Did Abraham really say that?” In fact, he did, and he meant it. Modern Americans keep a bipolar relationship with physical touch. On the one … Continue reading To Feel and to Hold: Touch as a Love Language

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ISSUE #35 | DEC 2021, Religion

The Problem of Christian Philosophy

God is not an answer to the enigma of being; He, veiled and hidden, tenuous to the human eye, is wrapped in its center In a 1935 series of lectures, Martin Heidegger asserts that Christian philosophy is a contradiction in terms. If philosophy—especially metaphysics—is the exploration of the fundamental question “Why is there being rather than nothing?”, then religion, and dogmatic religion in particular, cannot … Continue reading The Problem of Christian Philosophy

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ISSUE #35 | DEC 2021, Religion

Suffering Redeemed: Work as an Act of Love

While it is true that manual labor has an inherent value, to focus primarily on the meaning of the activity and ignore the way that activity is experienced largely misses the point I have heard many different philosophical explanations for the value of hard work and the dignity of America’s working class. They offer a response to those among the upper and upper- middle classes … Continue reading Suffering Redeemed: Work as an Act of Love

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #35 | DEC 2021

Revisiting Daredevil

“Our lived reality often conflicts with theological principles in ways that cannot be resolved easily, or even at all.” In the first season of Marvel’s Netflix show Daredevil, Matthew Murdock has a frank discussion with his priest about personal vocation. A lawyer by day and masked vigilante by night, Matthew walks a fine line of hypocrisy. He regularly steps outside the bounds of the justice … Continue reading Revisiting Daredevil

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ISSUE #33 | MAY 2021, Music Reviews

“Take Me to Church”: Hozier and Man’s Innate Religious Impulse

Perhaps pagan, apparently agnostic, undeniably unchristian—whatever category you apply, Hozier’s music is fundamentally religious. Rather than divorcing faith from art,  Andrew Hozier-Byrne, who performs under the stage name Hozier, brings religion to center stage. He wrestles with God in both of his albums, inviting his audience to actively contemplate the afterlife and critically analyze the nature of worship alongside him. His disdain for institutionalized Christianity, … Continue reading “Take Me to Church”: Hozier and Man’s Innate Religious Impulse

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