Category Archives: Quotations

Bailey on Jesus and Politics

Posted on February 24, 2016 by PaulVK

Luke 13:1-9 The movement of the two illustrations is significant. The informants in effect ask, “What about the suffering of these national heroes struck down by our enemy?” Jesus answers, “What about the suffering of those whom God strikes down … Continue reading →

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The Body that Enables the Spirit

Posted on February 6, 2016 by PaulVK

Yet the last item in this sequence is the one that he is driving toward: “It is sown a natural body [psychikon sōma], it is raised a spiritual body [pneumatikon sōma]” (v. 44, NIV). This is the nub of his … Continue reading →

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Bertrand Russell’s matter-verse–story-verse

Posted on February 5, 2016 by PaulVK

‘I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive.’4 Again, he affirmed his conviction that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; … Continue reading →

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Descartes in Amsterdam

Posted on February 5, 2016 by PaulVK

It may not be coincidental that René Descartes, the so-called father of modern philosophy and founder, in terms of philosophical underpinnings, of the modern self— whose Cogito ergo sum (“ I think therefore I am”) formulation reoriented all knowledge on … Continue reading →

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Charles Taylor on the Reform

Posted on February 1, 2016 by PaulVK

What I’m calling “Reform” here expressed a profound dissatisfaction with the hierarchical equilibrium between lay life and the renunciative vocations. In one way, this was quite understandable. This equilibrium involved accepting that masses of people were not going to live … Continue reading →

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David Brooks Nails the Implicit Contemporary Source of Identity and Moral Authority

Posted on May 28, 2015 by PaulVK

In progressive American culture If you were born at any time over the last sixty years, you were probably born into what the philosopher Charles Taylor has called “the culture of authenticity.” This mindset is based on the romantic idea … Continue reading →

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CS Lewis Answers “Which Religions of the World will Give Greatest Happiness”

Posted on April 10, 2015 by PaulVK

Question 11. Which of the religions of the world gives to its followers the greatest happiness? Lewis: Which of the religions of the world gives to its followers the greatest happiness? While it lasts, the religion of worshipping oneself is … Continue reading →

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CS Lewis The Grand Miracle Great Centripetal Roads

Posted on April 9, 2015 by PaulVK

Then another thing. We, with our modern democratic and arithmetical presuppositions would so have liked and expected all men to start equal in their search for God. One has the picture of great centripetal roads coming from all directions, with … Continue reading →

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The Resurrection and Meaning

Posted on April 9, 2015 by PaulVK

The esteemed Yale church historian Jaroslav Pelikan’s musing (as relayed shortly after his death by his friend Martin Marty) comes to mind. Professor Pelikan is reported to have confided, “If the Resurrection of Jesus actually happened, then nothing else really … Continue reading →

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Chrysostom on Love over Miracles

Posted on April 2, 2015 by PaulVK

For “when,” it saith, “iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” (Matt. 24:12.) And miracles do not so much attract the heathen as the mode of life; and nothing so much causes a right life as love. … Continue reading →

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