Showing posts with label society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label society. Show all posts

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Quotes

"The widespread postmodernist attitude that, since there are so many religions with a claim to truth, no one religion matters in the end, thus allowing us to ransack religions to suit our personal tastes, merely strengthens the status quo by driving religion from the public sphere into the private, with the weakening of religion going side by side with the growth of state power." (Lamin Sanneh)

"The most dangerous enemy today is no longer the dark forces of totalitarianism, the various hostile and plotting mafias, but our own bad qualities. My presidential program is, therefore, to bring spirituality, moral responsibility, humaneness, and humility into politics and, in that respect, to make clear that there is something higher above us, that our deeds do not disappear into the black hole of time but are recorded somewhere and judged, that we have neither the right nor a reason to think we understand everything and that we can do everything." (Václav Havel)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Read it.

"Without truth, without trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power, resulting in social fragmentation, especially in a globalized society at difficult times like the present" (5).

"Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. John 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development" (9).

... these are words found in a recent encylical, "Charity in Truth" (Caritas in Veritae) issued by Pope Benedict XVI. They are quoted in an article, authored by Francis J Beckwith. Beckwith reviews the recent Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, commenting on its content and meaning.

It is a very worthwhile read, I think: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/julyweb-only/127-53.0.html. It's a short article, too.

Additional links:

The full text of the encyclical in English: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

An op-ed piece talking about the difficulty that many have in understanding the full depth and breadth of this encyclical (or of much Christian thought in general): http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0710/1224250386825.html

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Thoughts to come, hopefully....

Thoughts on solitude and community.

Suspicion as the enemy of community.

Is the value of an individual within a given community contingent upon that individual's potential/real contribution to that community? What about within the redeemed community? How does it affect our interpretation of Scripture? How does it affect our understanding of sin - original and personal?

Love, unity, division, marginalization, peace, Friday's message in chapel, humility, preaching.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Unity?!

Unity - what is it?

Is it possible? How?

Oh, the thoughts that have run their course through my mind as of late... modernity, postmodernity, truth, God, Christ, Christianity, priorities, surrender, society, politics, word-deed disconnect, God as a social construct vs. God as Himself, the Church, pain and brokenness, orientation, misplaced focus, existence, HIV/AIDS and a properly Christian approach, love, justice, interpretation of Scripture, do we trying to follow ourselves even though we pretend to be following God?

Maybe I'll unpack some of these here. Maybe.

Peace. Soli Deo Gloria.