See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Colossians 2:8). What business do we have studying the liberal arts? The quadrivium and trivium? Why should Christians take an interest in philosophy, in … Continue reading Vain Philosophy and Christian Learning
Kierkegaard’s reaction seems to correspond not only to what is happening in the Danish church, but in the overall attitude symptomatic of Modern Philosophy and the Enlightenment. This period of history might be characterized as the era of the ‘fact’–the era where human reason stands over and at a distance from the objects it studies. … Continue reading Kierkegaard in the Age of Fact
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” … Continue reading Sorting the Laundry
To recognize one’s other as a self is to know a person as a person. Such knowledge goes infinitely further than tolerance or political equality. This post explores how ethical knowledge informs an experience of personhood. Personhood is ultimately a grander and more encompassing pursuit than that of tolerance or human rights alone. For Thomas Aquinas, there are two primary modes of knowledge: the theoretical and the practical. Theoretical knowledge … Continue reading An Encounter with Personhood
We began our reading of Plato’s Theaetetus in Arithmetic today. Like many of the ‘zetetic’ (seeking) dialogues, it focuses upon a central question: What is knowledge? And like many of these dialogues, a question of Socrates, quickly dismissed, is yet worth our attention. In passing, Socrates asks Theaetetus if wisdom is the same thing as knowledge: Knowledge … Continue reading The Pursuit of Wisdom
We have begun to explore how man is a double creature, a being who is natural and yet transcendent. The last post listed a number of ways in which this might be the case. This post will begin to explore numbers 2, 3, and 7. We can do this by first asking: What does ‘poetry’ … Continue reading The Poetic Creature: Images and Originals Part VI.A
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim his handiwork. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the … Continue reading Other Kinds of Speech: Images & Originals Part V.B
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim his handiwork. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the … Continue reading Other Kinds of Speech: Images and Originals Part V.A
Recognition is a fundamental element of art and life. We delight in seeing, in being seen, and in seeing afresh. This is the reality of good art and the false allure of mere entertainment. But the possibility of recognition is present in small ways every day. For myself it is there when rising in the morning with … Continue reading In Him: Images and Originals Part IV
In the first post, the idea of ‘form’ (also called a ‘look’) was introduced. A ‘look’ or ‘form’ was described as a dual entity: ◊ one which makes something what it is (the look of a bee is what makes a bee a bee) ◊ and it is that which allows us to recognize what a thing is; … Continue reading Double Vision: Images and Originals Part II
Same & Other 