Knowledge, narrative, and insight Have you ever shared one of your experiences and got a hearty “I know just how you feel!” in reply? Were you skeptical that your conversation partner actually did know how you feel? Because of what we share, we are tempted into believing that we know more about each other’s experience […]
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Belief Formation
Most of us haven’t given much thought to the way we acquire our beliefs, but this is a hot topic for philosophers like me, mainly because we’d like to know how to go about forming beliefs that are grounded and good for us. Essentially, the way people form beliefs is a lot like the way […]
Continue ReadingHabits
The new year marks a season of expectation, guilt, and failure brought on by one of the curses of our primate nature, the New Year’s Resolution. It’s been decades since I joked that my new year’s resolution was to give up making any. I encourage you to join me, and I’ll give you a very […]
Continue ReadingPrimate Science
Science as progressive lying Much has been made in recent news of Anthony Fauci’s “deceit,” and to be honest, the whole story brought to mind my granny, alas now deceased. I loved my granny dearly, and she doted on me, her first grandchild, from as far back as my memory extends. Nevertheless, my affection for […]
Continue ReadingEmptiness
A memorial for 2020 The beginning of a new year always seems full of promise, and the first day of 2021 tempts us to close the door on 2020, a year of disappointment, loss, and suffering for so many, and on such a scale. Before you close that door, think along with me about how […]
Continue ReadingThe Talents
Prefer to listen? Here’s the podcast version of The Talents. Yesterday was the 24th Sunday after Pentecost, and this year the gospel reading was one of my favorite parables: The Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). The author of Matthew uses this parable to portray the End Times, a discussion begun by the disciples’ question “What will be […]
Continue ReadingThe Poet who saved St. Pancras
The poet whose campaign saved St. Pancras Station was Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984), poet laureate of the United Kingdom from 1972 until his death.
Continue ReadingPledge Your Allegiance
One of the New Testament readings for this past Sunday, October 18, featured the well-known line “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21) Reading that line in the context of the encounter the author of Matthew narrates, it strikes me that this has […]
Continue ReadingWhat are you worth?
Prefer to listen? Here’s the podcast version of What are you worth? The parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, recounted in Matthew 20:1-16, features a parable about worth. Let me put this bluntly: this parable is an affront to every fair-minded human being. To show you why, let me write you into that story: […]
Continue ReadingWhat if God is serious?
A reflection on Trinity Sunday Trinity Sunday celebrates the triune nature of God, a concept with a long and difficult development in the early Christian community. The idea that God is three persons united in one “being” is tough. There’s no passage in the Bible where God announces, “I am actually three different persons, united […]
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