Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the incident that inspired a long-time post on this site: When You Need a Native Guide. It doesn't seem that long since we almost replicated the Titanic's fate in the Bahamas, but it has... The simplest way of depicting this cruise without too many details is to overlay the …
Continue reading "Still Needing a Native Guide, Fifty Years Out"
This continues a series inspired (somewhat) by Noel Barber’s The Sultans. The previous instalment is here. Ottoman culture has seeped into ours in ways we're not aware of. When we hear words such as divan, caftan and ottoman itself, we're hearing about things that came from that culture. Like most people, I like to take …
This is the first in a series inspired (somewhat) by Noel Barber's The Sultans. Although it's largely forgotten these days (along with most important history, especially by Americans) for five centuries the Ottoman Empire loomed large in every sense of the word. In its highest days (under Suleiman the Magnificent/Lawgiver) it threatened Christian Europe, a …
Continue reading "The Ottoman Tales I: The Hem of His Garment"
The Claude Reese real estate company comes to an end: Founded at the end of the Roaring ’20s, Claude D. Reese Real Estate — often referred to as the island’s oldest real estate firm — has sold the office condominium it had occupied for about 10 years at 140 Royal Palm Way. The agency has …
Continue reading "The Firm That Facilitated an American "Aliyah" Calls It Quits"
That's one way of looking at Sarah Hey's assessment of TEC's new Presiding Bishop: 2) Presiding Bishop-elect Curry has a lovely speaking voice and will continue to offer nice sermons. This will serve, no doubt, to assuage some of the embarrassment that moderates and not a few liberal Episcopalians felt when they heard Katherine Jefferts …
Continue reading "The Episcopalians Go From Smashmouth to Mealymouth"
The Holy Father has once again ambushed American Catholics with Laudato Si, his encyclical on the environment and global warming. As was the case with his earlier document on social teaching, we should not be too surprised; there is a great deal of precedent for this kind of thinking. As R.R. Reno points out: In …
From Bossuet's History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches, III, 12, this gem: For although the Eucharist, as well as the other mysteries of our salvation, had a spiritual effect for its end, it had, like the other mysteries, that which was accomplished in the body for its foundation. Jesus Christ was to be …
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"
Putting a wrap on Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 8: Now there is only this beautiful place in Proverbs, where the uncreated wisdom speaks thus: The Lord has possessed me, generated me, from the beginning of his ways. I am myself this beginning, being the worker idea of this great artisan and the original …
Well, we're up against it: we're starting to see Evangelicals, generally thought reliable adherents to Scriptural Christianity, defect to the other side over the LGBT business. Â For people raised in the system, this is a shock they are not mentally prepared for. Â For those of us who came out of liberal churches of long ago, …
Continue reading "Some Advice to Evangelicals on Major Division from Anglican/Episcopal Experience"
Positive Infinity 