In reviewing Reinhold Niebuhr‘s Major Works on Religion and Politics, Adam Kirsch makes note of the following passage from Niebuhr’s Moral Man and Immoral Society: If a season of violence can establish a just social system and can create the possibilities of its preservation, there is no purely ethical reason upon which violence and revolution can be ruledContinue reading “Reinhold Niebuhr On The Ethical Permissibility Of Political Violence”
Tag Archives: theology
No, Shmuel Rosner, Jews Should Not Keep Their Politics Out Of Passover
Shmuel Rosner suggests we should keep Passover apolitical and disdains the new Seders that reconfigure the Haggadah: In some ways, new readings of the Haggadah are a blessing. They take an ancient text and make it relevant. They make it easier for disconnected Jews to find meaning in the Passover Seder. They enable a contemporaryContinue reading “No, Shmuel Rosner, Jews Should Not Keep Their Politics Out Of Passover”
A Theological Lesson Via Military History
In Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu (J. B Lipincott, New York, 1966, p. 85), Bernard B. Fall describes the build-up which foretold the grim military disaster to unfold at Dien Bien Phu–the lack of adequate defenses and ammunition, the poor tactical location etc–making note, along the way, ofContinue reading “A Theological Lesson Via Military History”
Bertrand Russell On Deterrence By Making ‘Freedom More Pleasant’
In ‘What I Believe,’ an essay whose content–selectively quoted–was instrumental in him having his appointment at the City College of New York revoked¹, Bertrand Russell wrote: One other respect in which our society suffers from the theological conception of ‘sin’ is the treatment of criminals. The view that criminals are ‘wicked’ and ‘deserve’ punishment isContinue reading “Bertrand Russell On Deterrence By Making ‘Freedom More Pleasant’”
Dickipedia Was Invented For Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney‘s continued existence, his persistent and unconscionable consumption of space, oxygen, and sundry precious natural resources, has long been an airtight argument against the existence of an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient God. To wit, does such a God know of his existence? If not, then he is not all-knowing. If God does know of his existence,Continue reading “Dickipedia Was Invented For Dick Cheney”
No Atheists In Foxholes? Plenty of Atheists In Cancer Wards
In writing about Brittany Maynard, the twenty-nine year old cancer patient who has scheduled herself for a physician-assisted suicide on November 1, Ross Douthat asks: Why, in a society where individualism seems to be carrying the day, is the right that Maynard intends to exercise still confined to just a handful of states? Why hasContinue reading “No Atheists In Foxholes? Plenty of Atheists In Cancer Wards”
Blood Meridian and The Nature of the Universe
Yesterday’s post, in which I excerpted a couple of passages from Samuel Delany channeling Foucault, is followed today by two excerpts from Cormac McCarthy‘s Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West (Vintage International, New York, 1992). I’m going to call these ‘theological’ in nature. (The entire novel, I realize, may be termed a kindContinue reading “Blood Meridian and The Nature of the Universe”
God as Therapist, Existent or Non-Existent
In ‘When God is your Therapist‘, (New York Times, 13 April 2013) T.M Luhrmann suggests that the evangelical relationship with God often resembles that between client and therapist: I soon came to realize that one of the most important features of these churches is that they offer a powerful way to deal with anxiety andContinue reading “God as Therapist, Existent or Non-Existent”
If Not a Perfect God, Then a Imperfect God Maybe? Contd.
A couple of days ago, I wrote a post responding to Yoram Hazony’s article at the Stone. In response, Corey Robin sent me the following comments by email: I was thinking about yours and Norman Geras’s post about Yoram Hazony. I don’t think there’s any question that you’re both right about what the implications ofContinue reading “If Not a Perfect God, Then a Imperfect God Maybe? Contd.”
Why Would An ‘Imperfect’ God Be of Interest?
I find Yoram Hazony’s post at the Stone today genuinely perplexing (and a little pointless). Hazony suggests the notion of a ‘perfect God’ is problematic, that indeed, it is the insistence on such a conception of God, apparently nowhere to be found in the Bible, that is the source of much philosophical head-scratching, disputation betweenContinue reading “Why Would An ‘Imperfect’ God Be of Interest?”
Samir Chopra 