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General Christian

2013-01-29T16:58:05-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Becoming Neo-Pascalian: The Augustinian Problem

Last updated on: January 29, 2013 at 4:58 pm By K. Mulhern

In pursuing Pascal, it is not long before we come face-to-face with a conundrum. It’s the sticky wicket that challenged Pascal, and while we won’t be able to resolve it, we can at least look at it. Last week we talked about the violent division in French society between Catholics and Protestants. Religious conflict wasn’t exclusively French of course; the Germans had their Schmalkaldic War between Lutherans and Catholics; the English had their years of seesaw oppression—from Catholic to Protestant... Read more

Pascalian Spirituality: a series

2013-01-24T21:58:30-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I Can Speak Whale: Interrupted by Moby-Dick

Last updated on: January 24, 2013 at 9:58 pm By K. Mulhern

Pascal by day, but Melville by night. No wonder I can’t get a New Year’s letter out the door. Last night I finished Moby-Dick, an enterprise I started, once, long ago, and found too mind-numbing even for me. My daughter, an English Lit major, warned me. “Read only if assigned. Then you can write a paper on it and get credit.” Unfortunately, it’s part of a Franklin books collection my parents gave me as a graduation gift from high school,... Read more

2013-01-15T15:35:09-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Becoming Neo-Pascalian: The Back Story

Last updated on: January 15, 2013 at 3:35 pm By K. Mulhern

Okay, this week we’re diving into French history, which might not be your cup of tea. But I’ll try to make you feel it was worth your while. If we back up a bit to the 16th century, we find France undergoing seismic shifts in economy, religion, and culture—all of these, of course, playing on each other. The Renaissance moved art, literature, and music into fertile new areas (think Michelangelo, who died about sixty years before Pascal was born… in... Read more

Pascalian Spirituality: a series

2013-01-15T14:09:34-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Becoming Neo-Pascalian: A Personality Quirk?

Last updated on: January 15, 2013 at 2:09 pm By K. Mulhern

As we pointed out last week, Pascal’s actual scientific and mathematical work has been far surpassed. We may like stories about Euclid and Galileo, Newton and Leibniz but we don’t usually come across them in the Google rankings of “most quotable.” In fact, for a scientist/logician/mathematician, Pascal has a remarkably unscientific reputation among many contemporary French people. Those whose knowledge of Pascal’s ideas may be marginal but who have some sense that his contemporary, Descartes, was a hard core rationalist... Read more

Pascalian Spirituality: a series

2015-04-03T16:41:58-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Becoming Neo-Pascalian: An Introduction, from Cones to Gambling

Last updated on: April 3, 2015 at 4:41 pm By K. Mulhern

Pascal, this unusual 17th-century giant, seems to be poised to speak again from a distance to a 21st-century generation feeling pulled in multiple directions. While Pascal’s life was unusual for his age, he seems oddly a man of our time in many ways. Most common people of the 17th century had very limited exposure to cutting edge science, philosophy, or mathematics. [There was, however, lots of “cutting edge” religion to go around, though the cutting edge part was not metaphorical... Read more

Pascalian Spirituality: a series

2013-01-05T17:21:36-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Becoming a Neo-Pascalian

Last updated on: January 5, 2013 at 5:21 pm By K. Mulhern

Yesterday I wound up the last obligations of my fall courses. This included grading a handful of papers I couldn’t finish before the holidays. Many of these papers were from the Spiritual Formation class I teach—galloping through scripture and speed-dating with historical figures who have so brilliantly pointed the way for us. There they are, ahead on the road, at the turn in the distance, seeing something we cannot yet see but exclaiming to us wonders nearly inexpressible. Many of... Read more

Pascalian Spirituality: a series

2012-12-11T16:14:28-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Ad(vent)oration

Last updated on: December 11, 2012 at 4:14 pm By K. Mulhern

The darkness of December weighs heavily. Despite the glories of living in Colorado, with its bright blue skies and the heady weight of light during the days, still, December is dark early and late. Dark when we leave in the morning; dark as we drive home from work. The day barely peaks before the long shadows drive the sun to its early rest. So, we wait. The sun and earth will soon renegotiate their relationship, and the reign of night... Read more

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Advent

worship

2015-04-03T16:38:36-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

According to a Certain Studious Old Man, Objects in Mirror Are Closer than They Appear

Last updated on: April 3, 2015 at 4:38 pm By K. Mulhern

I read the Psalms, and I imagine you do too. Many read the Psalms when they wouldn’t touch Leviticus with a ten-foot pole. The Psalms are on the “beloved” list, along with things like the parable of the Good Samaritan and Paul’s ode to love; Ezra, perhaps, along with Obadiah and some other books, on the “really? that’s in the Bible?” list. But even then, some Psalms are more beloved than others. Psalm 23 takes the prize, I imagine. Followed... Read more

2015-04-03T16:38:13-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Tales from My Father: On Prayer and Two Old Women, One with Blue Hair

Last updated on: April 3, 2015 at 4:38 pm By K. Mulhern

As pastor’s kids, we enjoyed a certain amount of both notoriety and adulation, depending on who the observer was. As a little one, I remember weaving in and out of adult legs and conversations with a sensation of ownership, as though the church lobby was my fair demesne and these were all stewards of some sort. There were times I hugged the wrong legs, thinking they belonged to my dad… but did not. At that young age, I could do... Read more

2015-04-03T16:37:23-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thanksgiving, Sin, and Naming the Hunger

Last updated on: April 3, 2015 at 4:37 pm By K. Mulhern

My Catholic friends reassure me that I know nothing about guilt. They are experts. The very ritual of confession generates guilt, they say. They remember feeling guilty that they didn’t feel guilty, and making up sins to confess. The darkened confessional, the sliding door, the whispered prayers, the priest’s questions – all operated as a virtual guilt production line. Even worse was when they didn’t go to confession or attend Mass. And then saw the priest at school. More guilt,... Read more

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