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Faiths-and-Worldviews

Items on religions, ideologies, philosophies, and other ways people interpret the world

How the Victoria and Albert Museum dealt with the dying of Christianity: “This situation is unprecedented in western civilisation: even 50 years ago, when these galleries of one of the richest collections in the world were last displayed in the V&A, they could assume that everyone was familiar with the rudiments of Christianity. Now, in a twinkling of an eye, 2,000 years of culture in the profoundest meaning of the word have been largely forgotten.” (Anna Somers Cocks, The Art Newspaper, December 2009 )

Tue 05 Jan 2010 • Responses: 0 • from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The God that Fails: David Brooks: “Many people seem to be in the middle of a religious crisis of faith. All the gods they believe in — technology, technocracy, centralized government control — have failed them in this instance.” (New York Times, December 31, 2009 )

Tue 05 Jan 2010 • Responses: 0 • from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

From Winchester to Westminster: Jonathan Aitken discusses Sir John Templeton recently in the American Spectator; here’s a quote from the late philanthropist on gratitude: “Thanksgiving opens the door to spiritual growth. If there is any day in our life which is not thanksgiving day, then we are not fully alive. Counting our blessing attracts blessings. Counting our blessings each morning starts a day full of blessings. Thanksgiving brings God’s bounty. From gratitude comes riches—from complaints, poverty. Thankfulness opens the door to happiness. Thanksgiving causes giving. Thanksgiving puts our mind in tune with the Infinite. Continual gratitude dissolves our worries.” (The American Spectator )

Fri 11 Sep 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The New Humanism: Senior Fellow Roger Scruton: “The new humanism spends little time exalting man as an ideal. It says nothing, or next to nothing, about faith, hope, and charity; is scathing about patriotism; and is dismissive of those rearguard actions in defense of the family, public spirit, and sexual restraint that animated my parents. Instead of idealizing man, the new humanism denigrates God and attacks the belief in God as a human weakness. My parents too thought belief in God to be a weakness. But they were reluctant to deprive other human beings of a moral prop that they seemed to need.” (The American Spectator )

Wed 25 Mar 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Science and the Obama Administration: “But the advances we have all enjoyed in health and power and material well-being do not mean that there is nothing more to life than health and power and material well-being. Politics must be concerned with those, but it must be concerned as well with other—sometimes higher—things: with moral as well as material progress, with equality and liberty as well as prosperity, with human flourishing in its fullness. Perhaps instead of asking about the proper place of science, we should ask about the proper place of politics in a society dominated by science.” (Adam Keiper, The New Atlantis )

Thu 05 Mar 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Faith is the defeat of probability by possibility: You don’t have to be religious to have a sense of awe at the sheer improbability of things: “The more science we learn, the more we understand how little we understand. The improbabilities keep multiplying, as does our cause for wonder.” (Jonathan Sacks, The Times (London) )

Mon 02 Mar 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Dangers of Overselling Evolution: Focusing on Darwin and his theory doesn’t further scientific progress: “I don’t think science has anything to fear from a free exchange of ideas between thoughtful proponents of different views. Moreover, there are a number of us in the scientific community who, while we appreciate Darwin’s contributions, think that the rhetorical approach of scientists such as Coyne unnecessarily polarizes public discussions and—even more seriously­—overstates both the evidence for Darwin’s theory of historical biology and the benefits of Darwin’s theory to the actual practice of experimental science.” (Philip S. Skell, in Forbes )

Wed 25 Feb 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Denis Alexander talks to Francis Collins: Senior Fellow Francis Collins, interviewed in 2008 on his journey to faith and other topics: “I was rather proud of the fact that as a scientist I wouldn’t draw a conclusion until I’d looked at the data and tried to draw the best conclusion I could, and I realised that outside of a few little babblings here and there I’d never really tried to understand what was the foundation upon which believers rest their faith.” (Faraday Institute. Also available in PDF format (46KB). )

Mon 23 Feb 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Defense of the West: How to Respond to the Islamist Challenge: “We must recognize that it is not envy but resentment that animates the terrorist. Envy is the desire to possess what the other has; resentment is the desire to destroy it. How do you deal with resentment? This is the great question that so few leaders of mankind have been able to answer. Christians, however, are fortunate in being heirs to the one great attempt to answer it, which was that of Jesus.” (Senior Fellow Roger Scruton, at CERC. )

Mon 23 Feb 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Blind Science vs. Blind Faith: Some Thoughts on Breaking the Deadlock: ‘In their conversation, the student happened to mention the resurrection of Christ. The professor’s response: The resurrection is inconsistent with the laws of physics. Now, in fact, the laws of physics lie at a considerable conceptual distance from phenomena such as human death and decay and their possible reversal. This particular professor in any case, would have little if any idea where to begin showing that resurrection conflicts with physics—or why it matters, if it does conflict. Indeed, who would? Very few, I would imagine. “Science” was vaguely invoked to end the discussion, just as in other contexts, “religion” is used for the same purpose.’ (Senior Fellow Dallas Willard, from a 1994 essay on dwillard.org )

Mon 23 Feb 2009 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

A biblical lesson for today’s bankers: From Spain: ‘Bringing the biblical idea up to date, Governor Ordóñez suggested financial regulators insist that banks build up their capital at an enhanced rate during prosperous years to put them in better financial shape should a serious slump follow with many boom-time loans turning sour. Actually, a predecessor of Ordóñez in the 1990s, Governor Luis Angel Roja, did just that. He put into practice a regulatory mechanism termed “dynamic provisioning.” This, notes Ordóñez, has reinforced the present stability of the Spanish banking system “and today commands wide recognition.” The biblical story indicates that economies are “unequivocally cyclical,” notes Ordóñez. Since Joseph, 4,000 years ago, “perhaps we have made some progress … it seems that the years of plenty are somewhat longer than the lean years,” he adds. “But little more than that.” ’ (Christian Science Monitor, h/t )

Wed 10 Dec 2008 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Left Wing of America’s Civil Religion: ‘Quinn’s confusion comes from having ignored the most important basis of pluralism that the United States offers. Precisely by distinguishing the political community from many faith communities, the US Constitution opens the public arena to diverse faith communities, all of which are free to be exclusive in their membership while being included on equal terms in American society. Quinn, by contrast, wants to hold onto an American community of faith. And to do that she needs to find a “church” that is so all-inclusive that it can serve as the “sacred space for the nation,” as “a place the nation looks to in critical times.” But such a “church” can, by definition, no longer be an institution of Christian faith, for it has to serve the whole nation. Therefore, it has to be a place where the American civil religion can be celebrated, a religion distinct from all other religions even if it claims to include and encompass them all.’ (Jim Skillen, on one columnist’s recommendation of a church for Barack Obamas. “Root and Branch,” The Center for Public Justice )

Thu 04 Dec 2008 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

John Piper explains Why Calvinists are so Negative: This, with the item below from Frederica, offer two timely perspectives on appropriate humility—which could also be approached with profit from the perspective of strategy. “I must tell you that whenever I have had a profound experience of God through reading his word or encountering God in worship or community, it tends to just humble me, and make me want to say something like what Joni Mitchell said about love—‘it’s love’s illusions I recall; I really don’t know love, at all.’ I have barely touched the hem of the Master’s garment, I hardly know him though I long to know him better. In the face of the divine-human encounter, even Barth’s Dogmatics appear to be little more than a good start to understanding God.” (New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III )

Wed 19 Nov 2008 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

Confessions of an Obnoxious Orthodox: Salutary. “Most people like to be polite and get along, so they highlight our commonalities. But every church must have its distinctiveness, or we’d all be in the same church. At the time, I was so occupied with comprehending this strange thing called Orthodoxy that I emphasized the differences, and was impatient with kindly big-tent suggestions.” (Frederica Mathewes-Green, Beliefnet )

Wed 19 Nov 2008 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

The Obama Dilemma: “Which of these factions in evangelicalism’s divided house is more reflective of its essential character? In truth, both have a strong claim. Evangelicalism has always been centrally concerned with social reform as the necessary expression of spiritual regeneration. It is not merely a religion of inwardness. Nor is it a religion devoted to maintaining the status quo and propping up social elites. Instead, it challenges settled arrangements and champions the lowly and the marginalized.” (Senior Fellow Wilfred M. McClay, The Wall Street Journal )

Sat 01 Nov 2008 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments