Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 19
June 4, 2018
Christianity without Redemption or Forgiveness
We have blogged about how intersectionality–the fellowship of all of the oppressed under the unity of leftist ideology–is functioning as a new religion. The Federalist‘s Nathanael Blake takes this further. Drawing on an essay by Black intellectual and “radical centrist” John McWhorter (also worth reading), Blake says that this religion is like Christianity–except without redemption and […]
June 3, 2018
A New Crowd-based Religion
Religion has its beliefs, but it also has a social dimension, with governance, organization, finance, and member involvement. A new religion has been proposed, called 0xΩ (not sure how to pronounce that), with uses technology to allow a crowd to work out their practices and their beliefs, all of which can be instantly updatable. If there […]
June 1, 2018
Marcionites Then and Now
Fellow Patheos blogger Tom Hobson, a Presbyterian pastor with a doctorate from Concordia Seminary, has written some posts at Biblical Words and World about ancient heresies and how they are showing up today. (See this and this.) I was struck by his account of the Marcionites, who reject the “Old Testament God” in favor of a deity […]
Star Wars Sex
Brian Truitt of USA Today complains that there isn’t any sex in the Star Wars universe and calls on the filmmakers to rectify that situation! But there is sex in Star Wars. The whole storyline of the entire saga turns on sex. In his article Sex in ‘Star Wars’: Here’s why it’s about time, Truitt appreciates the innuendos in […]
May 31, 2018
Communal Reading in the Ancient World & the Early Church
In the ancient world, people read out loud, even when they were by themselves. Thus, Stephen could overhear the Ethiopian eunuch reading The Book of Isaiah as he drove by in his chariot. Not only that, as new research shows, people also read out loud to each other. In his book Communal Reading in the […]
Designing Rituals for Secularists
Human beings seem to have a need for rituals at some level. Religions are traditionally the source of those rituals. So what do you do if you don’t have a religion? A new online venture is rushing into that void, offering to create rituals for secularists. Religious rituals mark and heighten the significance of certain […]
May 30, 2018
Different Ways of Classifying Christians
Carl Trueman, in the course of his post If Only Francis Were Luther that we blogged about yesterday made an intriguing point about how there are many different ways of classifying Christians: There are many ways of dividing up the various traditions that claim the name “Christian.” One is the classic Roman Catholic–Protestant divide over the […]
We Are No Longer Reproducing Ourselves
The fertility rate in the United States has taken a nose-dive, dropping to 1.76 births per woman, below the replacement rate. The decline is across the board: among single women and married women; younger women and older women; and the rate for racial minorities has declined the most of all. And yet, studies show that […]
May 29, 2018
Is Pope Francis Like Luther?
A number of observers are comparing Pope Francis to Martin Luther. Both are reformers of the Church! Catholic conservatives who resent how the Pope is seemingly trying to change the church’s teachings on marriage, homosexuality, and various traditional practices are making this comparison and treating it as a bad thing. Liberals and ecumenists are treating […]
What Happens When Mind, Soul, & Body Go in Different Directions
Love in the Ruins (1972) is a dark, comic, disturbing, and yet profoundly Christian novel by the late Catholic author Walker Percy. “It’s all there in that one book,” said William F. Buckley, “what’s happening to us and why.” Baylor theology professor Ralph C. Wood discusses the novel and how it addresses our present times in […]
