Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
This ends a series inspired (somewhat) by Noel Barber’s The Sultans. The previous instalment is here. If there's one thing to be learned about studying the Ottomans, it's that there are many strange stories to tell. What makes up "strange" depends upon one's frame of reference. In his book on Palm Beach, Laurence Leamer characterised …
Continue reading "The Ottoman Tales XI: They'd Rather Die Christian"
This continues a series inspired (somewhat) by Noel Barber’s The Sultans. The previous instalment is here. The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans was a process written in blood, as was their inclusion in the Sultan's realm. The Romanian count who is known as Dracula fought to keep up the independence of his …
Continue reading "The Ottoman Tales VIII: Christians, Keep Your Promises"
Anyone who works in a university environment these days--especially in a public university whose state support continually evaporates--has heard about the concept of "safe space". It's an idea promoted by LGBT advocates where parts of the campus are designated as safe for such people to be without fear of opposition. The problem with that is …
Continue reading "An Important Way Church Needs to Be a Safe Space"
I've not had the time lately to post in as timely fashion as I would like, mostly because of the semester-by-semester crapshoot which is my PhD pursuit. But there's a long-term issue that deserves some comment, and that concerns a long-overdue attitude adjustment that Evangelicals need to make because of events in the Middle East. …
Continue reading "The Evangelical Comeuppance in the Middle East"
@DaleMCoulter muses on his students: The task was not to defend the tributary of Christianity in which my students had first touched the waters of baptism, but to show them that it was fed by a vast river stretching back two millennia. In short, I defended Christianity by helping them swim upstream so that they could …
Continue reading "The Complicated Business of the "Tradition""
Holy Saturday is one of those holidays that for most seems to be only a gap. We see the re-enactments of Christ's passion on Good Friday and the celebrations of his resurrection on Easter. But what happened between the two? What took place is what used to be called the "harrowing of hell", i.e., when …
Continue reading "Holy Saturday: The Two Reactions to Proclamation"
(Note: the Markov chain example starts about halfway through the post). One of the issues that the Roman Catholic Church wrestles with on an ongoing basis concerns the status of those politicians which a) profess and call themselves Roman Catholics yet b) show that they do not ascribe to the teaching of the Church in …
From St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, 3 q. 2 a. 6: ...we must know that two heresies have arisen with regard to the mystery of the union of the two natures in Christ. The first confused the natures, as Eutyches and Dioscorus, who held that from the two natures one nature resulted, so that they …
Continue reading "Taking the Middle Ground on the Union of God and Man"
From The Orthodox Faith, III, 1: For by the good pleasure of our God and Father, the Only-begotten Son and Word of God and God, Who is in the bosom of the God and Father John 1:18, of like essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Who was before the ages, Who is without …
Some people will write anything to fill up server space: With FOX News seeking to expose those who refuse to say "Merry Christmas" as secular collaborators to the War on Christmas, I confess that I am confused. FOX holds itself up as the network that stands by traditional values defending America and faith from heresies …
Positive Infinity 