The Calvinist International
I recently wrote about Steven D. Smith’s arguments in The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse, and more specifically, about how he demonstrates the vacuity of many of the Western world’s central political buzzwords, such as equality and freedom. In the course of his critique of Martha Nussbaum, he mentions another one that I thought deserved its own […]
Steven D. Smith’s The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse is one of the most piercing works in political philosophy I’ve read in a long while. Though it’s brief, by the end of it Smith has turned inside out some of the modern Western world’s most repeated fundamental values, and shown that appeals to them are actually […]
Dr. Bauckham kindly sent me a reply to my previous brief post about his Hellenization thesis (as I termed it, not him): I read your piece after comments were closed. Just for information, my concept of personal identity is not Hegelian. It follows Paul Ricoeur in his book Oneself as Another. The difference I am […]
In his widely praised book on NT Christology, Richard Bauckham writes: The term identity is mine, not that of the ancient literature, but I use it as a label for what I do find in the literature, which is not, of course, necessarily a notion precisely the same as modern ideas of personal identity, but […]
The ongoing debates between “science” and “religion” over biology and cosmology have well-worn groves, and the wheel of the discussion probably won’t skip out any time soon. But there’s no historical necessity about this. There could always be another angle we haven’t quite considered before. One possible contender for the title of “different kind of […]
Disclosure: I was given a free review copy of this book by the publisher. Over four centuries ago, one of the greatest Reformed minds wrote about the gifts of the pagans: For by holding the gifts of the Spirit in slight esteem, we contemn and reproach the Spirit himself. What then? … Shall we say […]
Prof. Scott Pryor notifies us of a fascinating article contending that contract law should reflect standards of beauty, and highlights some reflections from Herman Bavinck on the nature of beauty.
Edward Feser, writing in reply to atheist Keith Parsons, argues succinctly that denying the principle of causality is incoherent. This of course has great relevance for debates over the arguments for the existence of God, and for responses to major objectors like Hume. I would also argue that PSR, rightly understood — that is, in […]
Thinkers have sometimes stated that scripture is not metaphysical, or does not do metaphysics. This is obviously correct in one sense: the writings of the Bible are not generally characterized by philosophical jargon, but rather for the most part appear in everyday language. However, this statement is not true in another sense: the Bible does […]
Towards the beginning of the Phaedrus, in one of his many entertaining rabbit-trails, Socrates explains why it is that he doesn’t much care to prove or disprove the ancient myths. He hints that they are likely untrue, but his focus is fixed upon more pressing matters: Phaedr. I have never noticed it; but I beseech you […]