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Evangelical

2020-07-09T20:45:30-04:00

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.

Taxation, Non-Profits, and Moral Colonialism

Last updated on: July 9, 2020 at 8:45 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

There is no taxation without discrimination. The power to govern is the power to discriminate between the just and the unjust, the good and the evil. Ideologues forget this since they confuse their beliefs with obvious truths. Every organization ever created discriminates when it decides on its mission and what it will not do. Not every one can join or not everyone is paid who joins. Some things are valuable and other things are vices in the organizational culture. We... Read more

Culture

2020-07-07T10:15:53-04:00

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.

C.S. Lewis and A.E. Taylor: Literature, Philosophy, Plato, and the Story (Part 2/2)

Last updated on: July 7, 2020 at 10:15 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

“The story will save us. . .”so Plato ends Republic written when his society was dying. He was right, but Athens did not believe the story and so was not saved. That time would come later with Saint Paul. Out of the interaction of Platonic and Christian thought came a good bit of good philosophy, literature, and theology. When the proper distinctions between the two were lost, when Plato became “merely Christian” or Christianity became Platonism for simple people, then some... Read more

Apologetics

On Books

Spiritual Reflections

2020-07-07T10:15:18-04:00

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.

C.S. Lewis and A.E. Taylor: Literature, Philosophy, Plato, and the Story (Part 1/2)

Last updated on: July 7, 2020 at 10:15 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

C.S. Lewis was certainly a Christian, but an uncertain Platonist. A comparison to his contemporary A.E. Taylor, author of a magisterial commentary on Timaeus, is helpful in showing the debt Lewis owed the Platonic dialogue. Taylor was a Christian, an apologist, and was (somewhat unreasonably) proud of his prosody. Lewis was the better writer, though no poet, the greater apologist (though Taylor’s Does God Exist? is underrated), but sometimes lacks Taylor’s rigor and consistency. C.S. Lewis baptized my imagination, Taylor my... Read more

Apologetics

On Books

2020-07-06T00:57:26-04:00

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.

Timeless God (Some Holiday Speculation!)

Last updated on: July 6, 2020 at 12:57 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Any story about Jesus takes place in two times: God’s time and human history. I am not saying this philosophical idea was fully worked out in the mind of Saint John, but is suggested to readers by the details of the Gospel and the teachings of the Old Testament. The events of the Incarnation are the intersection of time and eternity. The liturgical understanding of John 11 suggests the view of Divine timelessness like that found in Boethius’ Consolation of... Read more

Apologetics

2020-07-06T00:56:12-04:00

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 Hopeful Theodicy: God takes on all our pain. . .

Last updated on: July 6, 2020 at 12:56 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

When the God-man wept before the tomb of Lazarus, He gave us hope. The God-man does not just know our pain, but heals our pain. The raising of Lazarus is temporary, of course. Lazarus will die again, but it is a down payment (an image) of the resurrection that will never be reversed. The God-man waits and God gets glory, but healing also comes to many, including Martha and Mary. Martha is allowed to make a confession of Jesus’ divinity... Read more

Apologetics

Spiritual Reflections

2020-07-04T11:45:55-04:00

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.

Contend

Last updated on: July 4, 2020 at 11:45 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

In the first chapter of Jude, Christians are commanded to contend for the faith. There were ages when this command was popular, times when fighting blood was aroused easily and without guilt. This is not such a time. We prefer “Twitter Heroes” who abandon the faith of the Apostles, but do so coyly, attacking their foes by being hurt or claiming to be misunderstood after chuffing some old heresy tarted up in modern academic jargon. I fear that most of us wish to... Read more

Apologetics

Spiritual Reflections

2020-07-02T00:45:03-04:00

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 Value of Unchanging Goodness (Happy Birthday Brother Daniel)

Last updated on: July 2, 2020 at 12:45 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

We could use some steadiness just now. Good qualities often are found in balance: do not be stingy or a spendthrift, avoid cowardice or rashness. Aristotle and the book of Proverbs are right: moderation in all things. A colleague reminded me that Professor Al Geier (often!) said that this moderation applied to moderation: there is a time to party albeit prudently! A generation, nation, or region may have particular virtues that are best loved and this creates a danger. The... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-07-01T10:58:59-04:00

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.

Why do tyrants always behave stupidly?

Last updated on: July 1, 2020 at 10:58 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Read about the downfall of any tyrant, even a less than awful one such as Napoleon, and you marvel at the increasingly foolish decisions the tyrant makes. If only they did not, if only they stopped, if only they did not say, but the tyrants do, go on, speak. They cannot stop. Why? Plato suggests in Republic that a tyrant is afraid. He has what many of us want, but that something, power, has made him a target. He knows, how well... Read more

Culture

Politics

2020-06-30T10:24:17-04:00

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 the Dog Nessie and Recollecting Reality

Last updated on: June 30, 2020 at 10:24 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

The dog Nessie asks me every day: “What larks today?” She anticipates joy and so I am bound to provide. Why? She is a reminder that there is natural order, a normal, and we should not forget. Nessie longs for food, water, toys, and affection, mostly affection. She will leave a bowl full of food to snuggle with the Fairest Flower in all Christendom. Who would not? Nessie lives in “is”, never able to question what should have been. The... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-06-29T08:41:40-04:00

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.

On the Russian Revolution and Today (Do not be a Robert Service)

Last updated on: June 29, 2020 at 8:41 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

If you assume something is true, then showing that it is true is easy. Contrary facts can be forced into your general view of reality. Robert Service knows more about Russia than most Russians, but that has not kept him from writing a pitiable book on the last Russian Tsar. One imagines his publisher rushing to the scholar and saying: “Nicholas II is box office. Write a book.” Charity forbids thinking the author made this calculus, though the book is... Read more

Culture

On Books

Politics

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