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2024-06-17T12:36:17-05:00

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.

Honest apostasy vs. faithful dissent

Last updated on: June 17, 2024 at 12:36 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Every so often one hears conservative Catholics (or conservative Christians generally) say that people whom they consider insufficiently orthodox should just leave, because it’s the “honest” thing to do. Most recently, the Patheos blogger Mindy Selmys has announced that she is leaving the Catholic Church, and has been applauded for her “honest apostasy” on the website of the conservative Catholic periodical Crisis. Now for starters, I don’t think people leaving the Catholic Church but remaining Christians should be referred to... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:06-05:00

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.

An alternate history scenario for supporters of Brett Kavanaugh

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Consider the following tale from another timeline: It was sometime during the presidency of Barack Obama. There was a Supreme Court vacancy. Obama picked a prominent Muslim judge who, before becoming a judge, had worked in the Clinton White House. Indeed, his appointment as judge by President Clinton had been controversial because of charges of partisanship and of anti-Israel sentiment. His ability to be nonpartisan was very much in doubt, but at the same time he was highly qualified. Conservatives... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:07-05:00

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 American Solidarity Party: still very much alive

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

The political party to which I belong, the American Solidarity Party, has been going through a lot of internal conflict in the past year. Founded in 2011 as the Christian Democratic Party USA, the ASP has roots in Catholic social teaching as well as the thought of the Reformed theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper. It’s an attempt to bring the European “Christian Democratic” tradition into American politics. Our most fundamental commitment is to a consistent ethic of life. If you... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:44-05:00

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 much-heralded death of European Christianity

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

The Daily Mail announces breathlessly that “Christianity in Europe is dying out.” This is just the latest in a long series of such stories that flit about the Internet, often heralded with equal glee by atheists (for obvious reasons) and by conservative American Christians who are happy to use their European brothers and sisters as a foil for their own allegedly more vibrant expression of the faith. Peter Ormerod responds in the Guardian that this alleged “death” is actually a... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:08-05:00

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 Last Jedi: a defense and explication (lots of spoilers)

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

In this post, I’m going to lay out what I think the film The Last Jedi is about, and why the film is, for me at least, a thorough-going success, rivaling the original trilogy. This is not to deny the validity of many of the criticisms that have been made. The film doesn’t, for instance, do a good job of explaining why the situation is so desperate and why the Republic appears to have failed entirely. But on the other hand,... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:08-05:00

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.

Star Wars movie review–but not the one you expect

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

I’ve been working on a series of blog posts on Brad Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation, which was published five years ago and which I finished reading about a year ago. So it probably shouldn’t surprise that I am now writing not about the new Star Wars (which I’m going to see on Tuesday) but the last one, which I only just watched last night (in preparation for seeing the new one). I’d heard a lot of mixed reports on it–many... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:45-05:00

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.

Brad Gregory–Excluding God, or, It’s all the fault of Duns Scotus

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

(image: public domain)Chapter One of The Unintended Reformation is probably the most often cited. Indeed, many of the negative reactions to the book focus on the thesis Gregory argues here. Ironically, the chapter is atypical inasmuch as the root of modern secularism identified here lies not in the Reformation itself but in late medieval theology, specifically the work of Duns Scotus. According to Gregory, Scotus’ concept of “univocity” radically altered the traditional Christian understanding of God. In traditional Christian theology (i.e.,... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:13-05:00

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.

Silence

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Several weeks ago, I finally watched Martin Scorsese’s film Silence. Given the title and the theme, it’s probably appropriate that it’s taken me so long to write about it, though that’s fairly typical for me. For people who don’t already know the film: it’s based on a book by the Japanese novelist Shusako Endo, which is in turn based on historical events of the early 17th century during the Japanese persecution of Christians. A Portuguese Jesuit missionary, Christovao Ferreira, has... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:22-05:00

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.

An appreciation of the Reformation

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

As usual, I’d meant to have posted more on the Reformation leading up to the 500th anniversary tonight, including a series on Brad Gregory (only one post out in that so far). However, this is only the anniversary of the posting of the Theses, which is typically seen as the public beginning of the Protestant movement. So I’ll be posting more in the months–and years–to come, perhaps up to (or even beyond) the anniversary of the Peace of Augsburg in 1555.... Read more

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2020-05-15T12:35:23-05:00

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 Unintended Reformation, part 1

Last updated on: May 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

I have been meaning for some time to write a review of Brad Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation, which came out five years ago now and attracted a lot of attention. Reformation scholars, at least those focusing on theology, have, generally, panned the book, while Catholic apologists of course find it red meat. Personally, I greeted it with delight when I first began to read it, as the book I would have wished to write myself if I had had the... Read more

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