Here is a recent paper on the source and character of mathematics. It is an exploration of Pythagorean-Platonic and Aristotelian-Thomistic accounts of mathematics and science. This paper argues that mathematics is a specific form of abstraction. It concludes that science remains authentic when it maintains an awareness that it is necessarily abstract or reductionist. It … Continue reading A Paper on the Mathematics
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.–Hebrews 11:6 What is it about faith that is pleasing to God? We can imagine a family of four brothers who have gone out for a kayak … Continue reading Dad is Going to Come
—‘I wish you would,’ cried my son Moses, ‘and I think,’ continued he, ‘that I should be able to answer you.’ ‘Very well, Sir,’ cried the ‘Squire, who immediately smoaked him,’ and winking on the rest of the company, to prepare us for the sport, if you are for a cool argument upon that subject, … Continue reading On the Abuse of Reason: A Contest of ‘Wits’ in Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield
Here is a link to a recently finished paper on Scripture, memory, and the Church. It focuses on how memory constitutes the community and communion of the Church. https://www.academia.edu/61068570/Scripture_as_the_Memory_of_Gods_People Continue reading Scripture as the Memory of God’s People
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. –Mark 16:1 The time to anoint the Son is fast passing. In a fit time, he was anointed by the waters of the Jordan and then by the descent of the … Continue reading The Time to Anoint the Son
Because Adam was forbidden to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, some have erred in thinking that he lacked all moral knowledge before sin, that he received only a verbal commandment without having any sense of good and evil. After all, he had not eaten the fruit of that forbidden … Continue reading On the Prelapsarian Perfection of Man
By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil (Proverbs 16:6). What does one say to those who insist we must act only out of the love of God and never from fear? I wish to think through the role of fear in … Continue reading On Scorn Hidden in Reverence: More on Recommending the Fear of the Lord
By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil (Proverbs 16:6). Those who live their entire lives under an anxious fear of the Lord surely do not know him as they ought. Nevertheless, those who insist that the fear of the Lord play … Continue reading Spiritual Fornication: On Recommending the Fear of the Lord
In Kate DiCamillo’s Tale of Despereaux, a maidservant, Miggery Sow, usurps the place of Princess Pea. The maidservant, dull, ugly, and cruel, is a mockery of the true lady. In the halls of learning, something similar has happened. Philosophy, and the liberal arts under them were once understood to be the handmaid of Theology, the … Continue reading When the Handmaiden Usurps the Throne: Liberating Theology from the Liberal Arts
Each word is like a gem that shines with a distinct luster, that possesses a distinct virtue of its own, one that will offset various settings and occasions uniquely. Thus rhetoric is as the jeweler’s art in its attention to clarity, harmony, and integrity of speech, in all its parts and as a whole. And … Continue reading On the Necessity of Rhetoric
Same & Other 