Stealing from Atheism 2.0. Nicely.

I'm stealing this idea from NearEmmaus, one of my favorite blogs.

Alan de Botton, a kind atheist, presents some profound critiques of secularization in this TED Talk. As a Christian, he reminds me of some of the great benefits of Christian art, the liturgical calendar, community, etc. As a Christian, de Botton encourages me in my practices. While I disagree entirely on the superstructure of belief, and I say "Of course there is a God, look around you," I think he has some important things to say, which ought to act as excellent reminders for those of us who find ourselves swept up in the grand story of a loving Creator. Take a few minutes to watch de Botton's talk; you'll be glad you did.

A Brief Theology of the Academic Vocation

Over at Intervarsity's Emerging Scholars Network I've written an article about the purpose of academic work, and about how that work is informed and influenced by the Christian understanding of the glory of God. Check it out! http://blog.emergingscholars.org/2014/01/a-brief-theology-of-the-academic-vocation/

Pope Francis I: Time Magazine's "Person of the Year"

This morning, Time named the Pope the "Person of the Year." While Time admittedly is just a magazine and publisher, this decision is remarkable. Since when does the leader of the Catholic Church win the top spot on a pop-culture list of the best people ever? Since this morning, I guess.

What's most amazing to me is not that a Pope won this contest, but that this Pope did.  Apparently the attributes of Jesus Christ are, even after 2,000 years of human failure in his name, still desirable to our culture. A few weeks ago Francis I wrote an eighty-something page document called "The Joy of the Gospel." In it he emphasizes and reemphasizes his desire for "...a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security."  Yes.

If this man does what he says he'll do, if he continues to change the face of the Church into one of kindness, humility, and self-sacrificial love, while holding fast to the principles of God's created order, he's my man of the year, too.

On the controversial issues, the Time article had this to say of the new Pope:

And so Francis signals great change while giving the same answers to the uncomfortable questions. On the question of female priests: “We need to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman.” Which means: no. No to abortion, because an individual life begins at conception. No to gay marriage, because the male-female bond is established by God. “The teaching of the church … is clear,” he has said, “and I am a son of the church, but”—and here he adds his prayer for himself—“it is not necessary to talk about those issues all the time.”

And to the divorced and remarried who have been disallowed the sacrament of Communion in the Catholic Church, Francis says this: Communion "is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak."  Wonderful.

As Anthony LeDonne said in his post on this same article, "...I care that the Pope is attentive to the longstanding portrait of a humbled and humbling Jesus."

Here's to the Pope.

Albert Einstein and Faith

While reading Dale Allison's Constructing Jesus, I came across this enlightening little quote by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld:

In our endeavour to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations. He will never be able to compare his picture with the real mechanism.

And so we are left with theories and models of reality that cannot be proven.  And so we, even if the best of scientists, are left with faith.

In other news, check out this NPR article about the discovery of particles that may move faster than light, thus perhaps leaving E=MC^2 as an old, incorrect theory.

Civil Rights, Gandhi and the Religion of Tolerance

It is a rare household that's ignorant of the name “Gandhi.”  Equally rare, however, are those with knowledge of his life beyond trendy cliché. His life tells a complex story; it is, after all, a human story, riddled with virtue and vice.  One of the virtues Gandhi developed over his life—one which he prized and others still esteem him for—was tolerance.  He was tolerant of ignorance, political differences, and even violence committed against himself.  But the tolerance of M. K. Gandhi was limited, especially regarding many forms of religion and ethics.

Many scholars of South and Southeast Asian Studies have regarded Gandhi’s religion as the source of his tolerance. He encountered many religious traditions early in his traveling life and public career, and the Hindu culture that raised him increased his understanding of religious diversity. Although he was brought up in a Hindu household with a devout mother, Gandhi kept himself unattached to any particular sect, and he claimed that his “inner voice,” something like Socrates' daimon, guided the beliefs to which he did adhere (Gandhi, 2008). This inner voice was his chosen spiritual guru for his lifelong quest toward a religion of tolerance, non-violence and reason.

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