Better things for better living
Richard DeGrandpre: “When a thousand points of light shine upon you in a commercial war for your thoughts, feelings, and wants, your mind adapts, accepts, and then, to feel stimulated, needs more.”
After irony
Richard Rorty’s tangled spiritual pilgrimage has origins in being the grandson of social gospel theologian Walter Rauschenbusch and the son of committed Leninists.
Art and whateverism
Jed Perl on why great art is triumphantly intolerant
Why Johnny can’t think coherently
Alasdair MacIntyre on the importance of theology in liberal arts education
An ancient modern confusion
Ken Myers offers a brief primer on the heresy of Gnosticism
The market-driven marriage?
The commodification of everything is a problem, not an opportunity.
Roger Shattuck, R.I.P.
Rogert Shattuck: “The age-old uneasiness about the subversive potentialities of unfettered knowledge reveal a recognition that knowledge can bring unhappiness and ruin as well as insight and liberation.”
Christianity and science in the beginning
Historian Stephen A. McKnight argues that Fransic Bacon did not employ religious ideas with cynical and manipulative intent, but with the utmost sincerity. But was he theologically sound?
“The Image Culture”
Christine Rosen on how the ubiquity of images erodes their power.
The arts and public funding
Ken Myers answers a letter from a high school student asking about whether Christians should support the idea of federal funding for the arts.