Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Christian Doctrine

  • The Ought-to-Do, the Ought-to-Be, and the Aporetics of “Be Ye Perfect”

    Could one be under a moral obligation to perfect oneself?  Substack latest.

  • John Updike, Seven Stanzas at Easter

    Seven Stanzas at Easter Make no mistake: if He rose at allit was as His body;if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the moleculesreknit, the amino acids rekindle,the Church will fall. It was not as the flowers,each soft Spring recurrent;it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddledeyes of the eleven apostles;it was…

  • John Updike’s Christianity

    Gerald R. McDermott (emphases added): In Updike’s religion, then, there are no commandments we are meant to keep except the obligation to accept what is: “Religion includes, as its enemies say, fatalism, an acceptance and consecration of what is.” Our only responsibility is to “appreciate” the great gift that life represents. He learned from Barth that…

  • At the Mercy of a Little Piece of Iron

    A Good Friday meditation at Substack. Addendum 4/4/21. Vito Caiati writes, I have been pondering the profound and poignant Good Friday meditation, “At the Mercy of a Little Piece of Iron,” that you just posted on Substack.  The Weil text that inspired your post leaves me, nevertheless, with a tormenting question, one which arises from her…

  • A Difference Between Jesus Christ and Buddha

    "And Jesus wept." (John 11, 35)

  • David French, Christianity, and Politics

    Substack latest.

  • Platonism and Christianity

    Brother Dave writes, I'm re-reading Boethius' Consolation. Boethius does have a foot in Athens and one in Jerusalem, it seems to me. Now you sir are a Christian, and argue your positions in a blog subtitled Footnotes to Plato . . . .  Would it be fair to refer to you, as I would to Boethius, as a Christian…

  • The Ultimate Paradox of Divine Creation

    God freely creates beings that are both (i) wholly dependent on God's creative activity at every moment for their existence, and yet (ii) beings in their own own right, not merely intentional objects of the divine mind.  The extreme case of this is God's free creation of finite minds, finite subjects, finite unities of consciousness…

  • Identity Politics as a Deformation of Christianity

    This First Things article by Joshua Mitchell is well worth reading. Excerpts: Marxism could never take hold in America because Americans believed in private property. Because property is the cornerstone of our republic, and cannot be removed, Marxism failed. Postmodernism could never really take hold in America because Americans believe that history has a meaning—and…

  • Reading Now: Leszek Kolakowski, God Owes Us Nothing

    I'm on a Kolakowski binge.  I've re-read Metaphysical Horror (Basil Blackwell, 1988) and Husserl and the Search for Certitude (U. of Chicago, 1975).  I purchased the first at Dillon's Bookstore, Bloomsbury, London, near Russell's Square in late August, 1988.  Auspicious, eh? I was in the U. K. to read a paper at the World Congress…

  • David French, Donald Trump, Christianity, and Politics

    David French maintains that Christians cannot, if they are to remain true to Christian teachings, support Donald Trump: The proper way for Christians to engage in politics is a rich subject . . . but there are some rather simple foundational principles that apply before the questions get complex. For example, all but a tiny…

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Decoupling Rock and Roll from Sex and Drugs

    Five examples: Norman Greenbaum, Spirit in the Sky Johnny Cash, Personal Jesus. This is one powerful song. Clapton and Winwood, Presence of the Lord. Why is Clapton such a great guitarist? Not because of his technical virtuosity, his 'chops,' but because he has something to say. George Harrison, My Sweet Lord George Harrison, All Things Must Pass. Harrison was the Beatle with depth.…

  • Presentism and the Cross

    Alexander Pruss argues: 1) It is important for Christian life that one unite one’s daily sacrifices with Christ’s sufferings on the cross. 2) Uniting one’s sufferings with something non-existent is not important for Christian life. 3) So, Christ’s sufferings on the cross are a part of reality. 4) So, presentism is false. The Prussian argument…

  • He Breathed His Last

    If you have ever struggled with the one-person-two-natures doctrine, then you may be inclined to agree with Dale Tuggy: Today is when we remember that terrible and wonderful day when our Savior willingly died for us, breathing his last. This whole time, God was not breathing at all. As a divine spirit, God lacks lungs,…

  • Anthony Flood Reviews David Horowitz, Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America

    Excerpts: Cultural Marxism is but the latest form of the cultural cancer now metastasizing throughout the body politic. (Marxism-Leninism was only the deadliest form, not the first, but even today old-fashioned Communism does not lack adherents.) That the Democratic Party is now this malignancy’s host is the grim, but well-documented, conclusion of Horowitz’s long literary…