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 […]
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What 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 […]
Continue ReadingThe Woman at the Well, II
I appreciate the many thoughtful responses to The Woman at the Well, and I appreciate the expressions of concern and even anxiety. All these thoughts and feelings have their place in our society’s current moment of self-examination, and I’d like to respond. I think a good approach is to dig a little deeper. “What was he […]
Continue ReadingThe Woman at the Well
Wednesday, June 17, was the anniversary of the murder of the Emmanuel Nine, and churches across the country remembered the victims and their families and congregations. These moments of reflection on lives lost to hatred are particularly poignant at this historical moment, when many white people are awakening to the legacies of racism in our […]
Continue ReadingRebirth of philosophy?
Here’s an interesting observation about philosophy in “our time”: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200114-why-philosophers-could-be-the-ones-to-transform-your-2020 Since my college days, when I first discovered the schools of Hellenistic philosophy, I have been fascinated by the ways in which those philosophers — the Stoics and Epicureans — addressed their theorizing to problems of living well. For that period, it was mainly about […]
Continue Readingthe tyranny of terms, part 1
I have a bit of an obsession with terms. More precisely, I like precision. I’m a philosopher, so my obsession with precise terms is something of an occupational hazard. I often find myself in conversations with people who feel constrained by terms and labels, so naturally, they resist policing for precision’s sake. I understand the tyranny of […]
Continue ReadingConflict and inquiry
“We’re having a conflict, and we need help resolving it.” This familiar sentiment often brings people in to see therapists and counselors, (and even philosophical practitioners!), and most people start off seeking conflict resolution. Let’s think about this notion of conflict resolution. First, some preparatory observations. Suppose I ask you, What is the absence of conflict? […]
Continue Readingpros and cons of hitchhiking
I couldn’t wait for Roger Waters’s tour, Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. I got a shirt and the vinyl (which I still have). But this article isn’t just a case of nostalgia: It’s a philosophical question about reality and fantasy. The “plot” of Pros and Cons, if that makes any sense, is a series of seemingly random thoughts […]
Continue ReadingBack to the roots of education
If you ask most people in Academia, we are living in Dark Times. It’s the age of Stackable Credentials and Verifiable Skills, of the “professionalization” of university leadership, standardization and fragmentation of the curriculum, and denigration of expertise. We didn’t ask for it, but knowledge- and skill-acquisition are being steadily off-loaded from Academia onto other […]
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