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Evangelical

2020-10-05T22:45:51-04:00

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.

Beware the Dilettante: How Luxury Can Keep Us From Wisdom (Phaedrus)

Last updated on: October 5, 2020 at 10:45 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Luxury is fun on a holiday, but can be deadly in a lifetime, keeping us from knowing true love. Fasting sharpens our awareness of ideas and spiritual things. Successful people I have known often live relatively simple personal lives. They know that eating holiday food every day leaves nothing for a feast. This creates boredom, leaving aside any moral issues about waste or self-indulgence. What is love? How can we find true love?* The dilettante toys with wisdom, but wisdom... Read more

Culture

On Books

2020-10-05T21:48:26-04:00

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.

Father Ryan’s Error: The Voices He Did and Did Not Hear

Last updated on: October 5, 2020 at 9:48 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

When we listen to our times, our church, whose poetry are we hearing and whose hymns are we missing? I own a battered green book retrieved from a Galveston library discarded book bin. The 1896 second edition contains the story of a very interesting man who did some good in his time, was loved by many, but who got the one big event of his lifetime more than wrong: Father Ryan, Confederate chaplain, priest, and poet. He was evidently a... Read more

Culture

On Books

Spiritual Reflections

2020-10-05T00:07:34-04:00

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.

At the end of the Storm, Divine Happiness (Shakespeare’s The Tempest)

Last updated on: October 5, 2020 at 12:07 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

We saw Tropical Storm Harvey coming in Houston, knew that something bad was coming, but could do little. The tempest was coming, mostly too late to change the path we had trod when sitting in the path of the wrath of gods. Houston had to accept what could not be denied. We also had the choice to act with courage and be strong in the storm. We (mostly) did and were. Just now we face a metaphorical storm as a... Read more

Culture

On Books

Philosophy

2020-10-04T18:53:11-04:00

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.

The Deadly Trap of Rhetoric (Phaedrus)

Last updated on: October 4, 2020 at 6:53 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Before he became a Christian, a relative was a shill for a patent-medicine man. As a good looking, bright young man his job was to hear the pitch and then say from the back of the audience: “I will take one.” That got the buying going. When he became a Christian, that, like a lot of other things, had to go. Persuasion should come from clear thinking and a clean heart! Beware rhetoric without a love of wisdom. The sage... Read more

On Books

2020-10-03T17:33:48-04:00

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.

To Avoid Distraction (With Gladiators!)

Last updated on: October 3, 2020 at 5:33 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

There are people, topics, and positions that if you even mention them became the topic or keep an audience from focussing on the deeper issues. I once gave a lecture on beauty to a group of parents in the early twenty-first century. During the extensive questions at the end, one parent asked my view of the Harry Potter series. “I will not comment,” I commented, “because it is such a hot topic that no matter what I say the important topic of beauty in... Read more

Apologetics

Culture

2020-10-02T15:46:49-04:00

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.

Envy

Last updated on: October 2, 2020 at 3:46 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

That he was a Moor was bad enough. That he chose someone smarter, more virtuous for the job was worse. Or so one of the worst villains in literature believed. Envy consumes Iago, because he cannot be happy when everything is not going his way. He plays on prejudice to advance himself, but adopts any opinion, posture, or guise if that would give him what he wants. Iago, the villain in Shakespeare’s Othello, not the parrot in Disney’s Aladdin, is false in every way, because... Read more

Culture

On Books

Spiritual Reflections

2020-10-02T16:11:46-04:00

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.

On Reading Plato: Thoughts for Starting

Last updated on: October 2, 2020 at 4:11 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

There must be someone out there who loved reading Plato right away, but I didn’t. When I read Republic, the entire book seemed needlessly complicated and full of obscure arguments advanced by an unlikable cast of characters: Socrates and his horrible students. Yet the problem was me, of course. Republic has held up for millennia because it’s good, whether I like it or not. Plato is beyond my judgments of him. Pause for a minute and consider how obvious this... Read more

Apologetics

On Books

Philosophy

2020-10-05T21:54:40-04:00

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.

Just Because We Like it Now: the Cautionary Tale of Abraham Cowley

Last updated on: October 5, 2020 at 9:54 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

The experts at any given moment can be horrible judges of what is good, true, and beautiful. An author, painter, or filmmaker may be admired in his or her day due to some odd quirk of personality. Sometimes the artist has such an overwhelming personality that liking him makes us like his poetry better. Given enough admiration by the right experts, people less secure in their taste or judgment in an artist, simply repeat the opinion of the experts. Consider... Read more

On Books

2020-10-02T16:32:06-04:00

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.

We Need Not Be Afraid

Last updated on: October 2, 2020 at 4:32 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

“Fear not!” The angel said these words to Mary, because real angels always must begin with comfort when they meet us. Men cannot meet with Angels safely unless God has sent the angels. Even when God sends the angels, the result is not safety, but security. Some adventure is beginning full of peril, but God will keep us, even if we die! Sometimes God sends Angels to execute His judgment: nobody told God that “spiritual” means soft and safe. God... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-09-29T21:16:05-04:00

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.

On Debating

Last updated on: September 29, 2020 at 9:16 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

What good is a debate? Debating is a good way to find out the merits of a case, if both debaters are serious about the discussion.* When watching a debate, here are three things to watch and three things to avoid. Watch for the knowledge that the debater shows about his opponent’s positions. Does he appear to have read the relevant work? A lazy debater will repeat his personal talking points. This might also be a sign of a person... Read more

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