Search Results for:

VIPREG2024 best promo code for 1xbet Paraguay

Did Pope Francis Just End the Religion and Science Conflict?

…focus on their common problems. Winning theological fights may not be the best use of time and resources when the health of the planet is on the line. This shift may never happen. The shadow of the ongoing debates about Darwinism—especially among American Protestants—may be too long and too dark to challenge popular acceptance of the Conflict Thesis anytime soon. It would also require an enhanced commitment on the part of the Catholic Church itse…

Read More

Why We Need a Public Black Theology for the 21st Century

…has been the nearest that we have had in recent years, though he is at his best as a charismatic orator rather than as a public intellectual in the ordinary sense. In print, West’s Christianity can seem superficial, but performed to an audience, West displays a powerful charisma. At his best, West avoids giving white audiences what they want; he takes risks and makes sacrifices because of his convictions; and he welds ideology critique alongside s…

Read More

How New Religions Are Made

…ral European occult practices, and freemasonry. Although Matthew tried his best to hide this religious bricolage, his papers offer a rare opportunity to see how new religions are made. Is there anything you had to leave out? Tons. I came to see Black Israelites as being very closely related to Black Muslims. Not only was there overlap between the groups’ memberships, but it was not uncommon for groups to blend elements of both Judaism and Islam in…

Read More

Run Hajar Run

…preparation for the rigors of the hajj rituals. I’m still researching the best program for me, but it’s been a week with no sugary sweets and no white flour. I’m still working my way to having six small meals a day, right now I’m at about five. I also included two brisk half-hour walks each day, when I can make them. The morning walk is less of a challenge, even when I have my grandson. In fact, especially when I have my grandson, because I push…

Read More

How to Choose a Tour Company for Your Hajj

…tarted asking friends, and friends of friends. By far, I think this is the best thing to do if you are like me: totally disconnected with hajj and umrah travel possibilities. I was so glad I did, because I got what sounded like the best thing I could imagine to overcome all these unknowns: a hajj guide recommended highly by a friend with details that suited my personality. Things like: we went here first and there last, because it limits the lines…

Read More

COVID-Denying Father Sergei is Just the Latest Example of the Russian Orthodox Church’s ‘Holy Man’ Problem

…n Vladimir Putin has his own renegade holy man. The spiritual father knows best The trouble arises from what’s actually one of the more humane and helpful customs of Orthodox Christianity: the spiritual father. (There are technically spiritual mothers as well, but the exclusion of women from the ordained clergy has historically kept their numbers small.) Deriving from the ancient Egyptian monastic tradition (the oldest in the Christian world), it’…

Read More

The Accidental Worshiper: Following the Music

…incerity of purpose that cannot be ignored. I would argue that some of the best theology right now is being done by ethnomusicologists. Haynes’ feminist critique of Mars Hill is absolutely inspired and inspiring. Navigating the fine line reflects a certain theological or ethical stance as well. It’s an ambiguous set of practices. One does not simply borrow. One reflects one’s theological or ethical convictions in the process. In Secular Music and…

Read More

Book Burning and the Scapegoating of Islam

…erings to supernatural powers. Rene Girard is a philosopher who is perhaps best known for an intriguing theory about the religious practice of sacrifice. Social life, for Girard, inevitably inspires violent impulses. But social life also requires that these impulses be suppressed. The solution is to direct those impulses toward a scapegoat—a victim, chosen on the basis of accessibility, who becomes the target of the society’s violence, thereby ena…

Read More

TLC Premieres Polygamy Reality Show Sister Wives

…The show opens with shots of goatee-sporting blonde Kody Brown wearing his best pin-striped suit and sitting at the wheel of his white Lexus convertible, then cuts to shots of Kody Brown bopping around under a big white tent at a wedding reception, encircled by a passel of blonde wives and blonde kids, as Brown’s voice-over intones: “My name is Kody Brown, and you’ve gotta meet my family. I like marriage. . . . And I’m a repeat offender.” What fol…

Read More

The Problem with AMC’s Sci-Fi Hit Humans

…fear that technology might one day surpass us, the human form isn’t always best for the job. Take, for example, the synth telephone operator. Why create a physical robot for this job which has to receive audio through a wired earpiece and then respond via speaker into a microphone? Couldn’t synth software do the trick without complex parts that mimic the functions of ears and a mouth? Furthermore, wouldn’t it make better economic sense to distribu…

Read More