The fullness of human community that Dante depicts in the final third of his Divine Comedy becomes more imaginable and compelling if we can see its playfulness and can, in turn, show the importance of play in our present communities, especially communities of learning. With help from James P. Carse’s distinction between finite and infinite…
This essay will survey Lewis’s writings and outline the development of his aesthetic ideas in relation to music, emphasizing his enjoyment of Wagner and explaining nuanced references to Wagner throughout Lewis’s works. Moreover, this essay will describe how Lewis’s ideas about God advanced in counterpoint to his ideas about music and how Lewis eventually came…
In the thirty-sixth episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Charles Taylor, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at McGill University. Ream and Taylor open by exploring the relationship shared by perceptions of selfhood and perceptions of how societies organize themselves. Taylor then addresses what happens when misalignment between the two occurs as various perceptions of selfhood come into conflict with one another in common social and political spaces. Ream and Taylor then discuss Taylor’s calling to academic philosophy yet how that calling was never entirely divorced from Taylor’s commitment to public service. For example, Ream and Taylor discuss Taylor’s service as co-chair of the Québec Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences. After discussing the impact Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Edmund Husserl made on Taylor’s thinking about selfhood, Ream and Taylor explore how Taylor identified and framed the questions he pursued in works such as Sources of the Self and A Secular Age. Following up on these works, Ream asks Taylor to explore the significance of Taylor’s most recent works, The Language Animal and Cosmic Connections. They then close their conversation by discussing Taylor’s perceptions of the academic vocation along with when and how scholars can be of service as public intellectuals.
Public intellectuals deploy their thinking as a way of exercising power and influence. Simply put, their aim is to change the world through spreading ideas and winning debates. An evangelical approach to being a public intellectual involves redefining that power through the lens of the cross. In deliberate conformity to the example of Christ, evangelical…
Patrick McNamara, Associate Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, has made a thoughtful and nuanced contribution to a growing field centered on questions concerning brain activity required for, and involved in, religious life. In a field spanning the disciplines of neuroscience and religious studies, it is often hard to find a perspective…
In this essay David W. Aiken argues that Bernard Lonergan’s contribution to recent Christian thought continues to be undervalued despite its depth, integrative scope, and relevance to contemporary issues. One such issue concerns whether methodological naturalism in the natural sciences warrants a reductionistic metaphysics, anthropology and epistemology. Lonergan’s holistic account of human intelligence and its…
In the twentieth episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Mark A. Noll, the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. Noll opens by discussing which dimensions of his long and distinguished career afforded him with the deepest satisfaction, focusing on the friends he made and the students he served. He offers his insights concerning how he came to understand the Christian academic vocation and what individual and communal practices can enhance that understanding for younger scholars. Noll and Ream talk about the importance of gratitude for the opportunities one receives, what requests one should accept, and what requests one should decline. Noll then concludes by discussing how being invested in the life of the Church and the keeping of the sabbath not only enhance one’s sense of calling but foster a lifetime of service.
In this essay Gillis J. Harp notes that some American Evangelicals find it difficult to conceive of a species of conservatism that preserves a moral political economy and some notion of a paternalistic state protecting the less fortunate. Yet this is the kind of conservatism that characterized the thinking of one key strand within the…
Institutions of higher education have a crucial role and responsibility at this moment of technological change to form people who will flourish in our so-called digital age. The speed with which digital information and communication technologies have permeated our lives has left little time for critical reflection on how we may intentionally integrate them into…
The year 2018 marks two milestone anniversaries: the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Samuel Huntington’s original “Clash of Civilizations” essay in Foreign Affairs and the seventeenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. After those attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Huntington’s predictions of Muslim-Western clashes appeared vindicated. But his…
In this essay Daniel R. Allen reviews nuclear deterrence, the most crucial theoretic construct for nuclear weapons policy. A wide range of positions exists with respect to belief in the deterrent utility of nuclear weapons. The positions of deterrence optimists rely entirely on a presumption that human rationality undercuts the motive for nuclear weapon use….
Virtue ethics has made impressive inroads into the business academy. However, the prospects of the development of virtues in the actual practice of business remain in doubt. Among the most influential skeptics is Alasdair MacIntyre, who argues that business institutions must focus on “external goods” (material rewards and prestige) which threaten the development of “internal…
In the thirty-first episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Amos Yong, Professor of Theology and Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary. Yong begins by addressing the contributions theologians from various Asian American backgrounds have made in recent years. As someone from Malaysia and China, Yong adds details concerning his own growth in understanding the critical role of place in theology. Ream and Yong then discuss how Yong’s Pentecostal background contributed to his theological habit of inquiring about the role of the Holy Spirit in a myriad of areas including the relationship shared by theology and science, theology of disability, and theology of higher education. Yong noted that when he completed his Ph.D. in the 1990s, few theologians sought to discern the role of the Holy Spirit in such areas. Such questions, however, are now frequently asked along with a host of others. Ream and Yong then conclude their conversation by expanding upon Yong’s understanding of the relationship the university and the Church share as detailed in Yong’s recent book (with Dale M. Coulter), The Holy Spirit and Higher Education: Renewing the Christian University.
This paper by Dennis L. Sansom examines and compares the ideas about the nature of the self in the twelfth-century theologian St. Peter of Damaskos and the twenty-first-century philosopher Richard Rorty. Peter understands the self as a flexible reality defined by a person’s ability to orient intentions, desires, and beliefs toward ever increasingly important ontological…
In the tenth episode of the Saturdays at Seven Podcast, Todd Ream interviews Romanita Hairston, CEO of the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust. Romanita starts by sharing her vocational journey in leading different organizations. Then, they discuss the “Murdock-ish” values of the Trust and how they practice that with their partners and beneficiaries. Lastly, they talk about how philanthropic organizations can support the Church and church-based educational institutions.
Introduction In September of 2016, a 20-year-old student from Russia entered an online auction site to fund university education abroad. What was for sale? Her virginity. The student, who identifies herself as “Ariana,” posted a starting bid of 150,000 euros—enough money for housing, food, and medical school tuition. Moreover, prospective buyers were given the opportunity…
Comparatively studying the Hindu theologies of lila and the Christian theologies of play can provide a common ground for interreligious dialogue on divine delight, divine presence, and human flourishing. In doing so, Christians can aim to build a robust and embodied theology of play that affirms similarities and identifies differences with other faith traditions while…
Convinced that Romans 1 and indeed the whole of Paul’s letter are under-used resources among Christian scholars across the disciplines, we attempt to show here that the text offers helpful analysis to scholars researching, teaching, and writing in a strikingly similar contemporary Western culture. First, we try to take tactful account of Paul’s presentation of…
In the nineteenth episode of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Kim S. Phipps, the President of Messiah University. Phipps opens by talking about her calling to the university presidency, the unique qualities of her service at Messiah, and how those qualities contributed to a tenure now in its twentieth year. Ream and Phipps then shift to discuss ways that the declining lengths of service of university presidents could be reversed or at least halted. When discussing ways to reverse those lengths of service, they also discuss ways women can prepare for such roles and what campuses can do to become more welcoming. Ream and Phipps then close their conversation by talking about the theological streams that define Messiah and how those streams influence the relationship faith and learning share in both curricular and co-curricular spaces.
Mystery, says Joseph G. Kickasola in this essay, is a key component in any film seeking to approach the transcendent. Mystery is a dialectical process, moving between paradox and miracle. The basic characteristics of religious mystery, as articulated by the theologian Louis Dupré, take thematic and formal shape in Paul Haggis’ 2005 Academy-Award winning film…
