A week or so ago I tried to articulate something of my religious faith in a blog post called Credo. I listed some of the authors within the Roman Catholic tradition who had influenced my spiritual evolution. Among them was the Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset.
Philosophy
Urnes Stave Church • Photo by John Marx (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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The sea into which all rivers flow
I have mentioned here before Meera Nanda’s “Prophets Facing Backwards: Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India.” It is a demanding book, but richly rewarding, and of exceptional relevance to our time.
"Pepper No. 30" by Edward Weston (1930)
More clearly than the eyes see
My recent Musing about Virginia Woolf’s “moments of being” sparked a thread of comment about those elusive incidents of attentiveness and insight when we are lifted out of the “gray wool” of everyday life and permitted to feel an intense connection with the world beyond our selves.
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Mr. Blue Redux
Sometime during my sophomore year at the University of Notre Dame, in 1955 – 56, my girl friend (now my wife) gave me a copy of Myles Connolly’s novella, “Mr. Blue.”
Teilhard de Chardin • Archives des jésuites de France (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The phenomenon of Teilhard de Chardin
In the beginning, there was not coldness and darkness: There was the fire,” wrote the Jesuit anthropologist Teilhard de Chardin in “The Mass on the World.”
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The mystery of life? I don’t know
Albert Einstein said, “Theories should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.”
Coronal holes in the sun's atmosphere • (NASA/GSFC/SDO)
Smiling faces, orbs of fire
A grandchild’s crayon drawing decorates our fridge. A big round Sun with a smiley face.
Photo by Wolfgang Mennel on Unsplash
Can we extend our rights to animals?
Oh, dear, what to eat?
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Protecting rights in the noosphere
My tattered copy of Teilhard de Chardin’s “The Phenomenon of Man,” which I read enthusiastically when it was published as an English paperback in 1961, now and then tumbles off the bookshelf, demanding a re-read.
Photo by Erik Aquino on Unsplash
Our bodies are ourselves: So be it
Philosopher René Descartes insisted that body and soul are different things. “I think, therefore I am,” he famously said. His “am” was not made of flesh and bone.