Faiths and Worldviews
Items on religions, ideologies, philosophies, and other ways people interpret the world
Lennox on Dawkins
Tue 14 Nov 2006 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellow John Lennox has a downloadable audio lecture and seminar discussing Richard Dawkins and his views on God, religion, and science.
The 2005 lecture is an MP3 hosted at bethinking.org. It’s 29 MB and runs over two hours, including questions and answers.
The Human Race
Mon 30 Oct 2006 by Paul Johnson
A Success or a Failure?
Historian Paul Johnson reflects on the history and prospects of the human race in a provocative lecture to the Trinity Forum in Europe. At the rate we are going, will the human race survive? Does it deserve to survive? It’s rarely a pretty picture, he says, but yet there is hope.
The Revolution in France
Sat 21 Oct 2006 • Responses: 4 • by David Aikman
Why are so many French immigrants so obviously not integrated into French society? Perhaps they don’t want to be.
Last fall, when hundreds of cars were torched in suburban housing estate communities in Paris and across France, it was clear that the perpetrators were very largely Arab immigrants to France from former French colonies in North Africa. In addition to the property damage and vandalism, there was violence against people, with the police often being targeted. Yet at the time, the French political establishment and the French media elite were united in proclaiming that all of the mayhem had nothing to do with the vandals’ religion. These unfortunates, they said, were angry because they hadn’t been successfully integrated into French society.
That much was true. The question is, why not? Is it possible they didn’t want to be?
On Not Leaving Theology to the Professionals
Thu 12 Oct 2006 by Peter Edman
Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian: A Reader, compiled and introduced by Paul Weston (Eerdmans/SPCK, 2006, ISBN 0802829821); 264 pages plus notes, bibliography, and index.
Since Implications is directed at business and professional leaders you may wonder why our first formal book review is about theology. The reason is that all of us, consciously or not, are theologians, and as Andrzej Turkanik said at a recent emerging leaders forum, the question is, what kind of theologians are we?
Most of us tend to leave the deep thinking to the “professionals,” and as Lesslie Newbigin says, “Theology has been largely the preserve of clergy and academics.” He said this as a challenge to the average follower of Jesus, reminding us that we have a deeper responsibility than we sometimes wish to acknowledge. We must not be satisfied with a superficial understanding and there are significant dangers when you leave everything to the professionals. We thus start with this collection of writings of the great missionary bishop and theologian who died in 1998, for it offers a framework for the type of approach we will often take.
Ethics in Guerrilla Warfare
Fri 08 Sep 2006 • Responses: 1 • by David Aikman
“Just war principles work successfully only among nations that acknowledge the same moral laws at work.”
In Israel, from which I have just returned, I saw the effects of the explosions of 30,000 ball-bearings when Hezbollah warheads carrying them crashed in among or near civilian residences. In Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, steel guardrails on roads were peppered with holes shot clean through them, entire halves of three-story houses were demolished. Dozens of Israeli civilians were killed by these random—but deliberate—assaults.
How do you fight a war against fanatical fighters who hide themselves and their weapons amid civilians and deliberately aim those same weapons against civilians in another country?
Sire on Wright
Fri 01 Sep 2006 by Peter Edman
Dr. James Sire has a review in the current Christianity Today on Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N. T. Wright (Harper San Francisco, 2006).
I’ve mentioned this book in other posts, but I have not yet reviewed it here. In “Echoes and Voices from Beyond,” Dr. Sire essentially captures my thoughts on the book as a whole. It really is excellent. I have a few quibbles on Wright’s understanding of economics, but they do not detract from this overall recommendation.
Perspective, Perspective
Thu 20 Jul 2006 by Peter Edman
I am struck by the tone of the arguments over the stem cell veto by President Bush. Others have said most of what needs to be said, but I do want to link to this post on the weblog of Ignatius Press, publisher of the books of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI.
After Carl Olson summarizes the one-sided and utterly histrionic (or else cynical) rhetoric of Mr. Bush’s critics, he refers us to a book by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, which has a quote on technology that is definitely going into a future revision of the technology curriculum (so many books, so little time). The quote below is from Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures.
Hassett Sanchez on Storefront Churches
Mon 17 Jul 2006 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellow Jody Hassett Sanchez has a feature segment on the July 14, 2006 episode of the PBS program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
The topic is Storefront Churches that operate in poor urban neighborhoods. You can read a transcript and view the segment here.
McClay on Auden
Fri 12 May 2006 by Peter Edman
Historian and humanities professor Bill McClay has an article in the Weekly Standard and the Ethics and Public Policy website, “Grappling with God: The faith of a famous poet.” in which he reviews a new book on the Christian wrestlings of W. H. Auden. It’s an important review of what looks like a solid book.
Also worth noting on Auden is an essay in Alan Jacobs’ Shaming the Devil, a collection about which I’ll be writing more shortly.
Faith Ensures a Future
Fri 05 May 2006 by Peter Edman
In an excellent piece from April, Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, assesses Islam and the West. This is precisely the tone—nuanced, respectful, confident, cheerful—I wish I heard more from Christians when considering their cultural context.
In ”Islam and Western Democracies,” Cardinal Pell makes a useful survey of the history of the relationship of Islam and Christianity and considers the resources that each side brings to bear. He offers both an optimistic assessment and a pessimistic assessment of the chances for reform within Islam—and what is important, adds in a realistic and vibrant sense of Christian hope for the future. He also touches on the often vexed question of whether Islam and Christianity and Judaism worship the same God and the question of the respective influences of culture, religion, and politics.
