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The Misdiagnosis of Modernity: Henri de Lubac and the Human Hunger for God
Posted on October 26, 2025 Leave a Comment
In a recent substack article, Craig A. Carter, a professor of theology at Tyndale University, reviews Steven Long’s Natura Pura: On the Recovery of Nature in the Doctrine of Grace. The book tackles a complex 20th-century debate within Roman Catholic theology concerning the concept of “pure nature” (natura pura). At stake is nothing less than the […]
The Failure of the Modern Project: Part 3 of 4
Posted on May 13, 2025 Leave a Comment
“We are nothing; let us be everything!” Across the first ten chapters of The Kingdom of Man, Rémi Brague has charted modernity’s grand project: the systematic effort to establish human sovereignty over nature, knowledge, and morality. From Bacon’s vision of restoring man’s “lost dominion” to Descartes’s methodological conquest of certainty, and from Locke’s labor-driven theory of […]
Metaphors, Mysticism, and Modern Misreadings
Posted on April 7, 2025 Leave a Comment
William Placher and Denys Turner, though separated by geography and academic focus, converged on a shared mission: to confront modernity’s relentless effort to shrink the mystery of God into categories palatable to human reason or emotion. Placher, an American theologian and philosopher of religion, spent much of his career at Wabash College in Indiana, where […]
Why the Science-Faith Dialogue Needs Souls, Not Just Syllogisms
Posted on March 29, 2025 Leave a Comment
In a recent post, I argued that the future of the science-faith dialogue depends less on physicists and more on theologians—those trained to grapple with Scripture, tradition, and the existential dimensions of belief. One reader, in a rather cheeky tone, urged me to “catch up” on philosophers like Bas van Fraassen, Hans Halvorson, Alex Pruss, […]
Why the Future of Science-Faith Dialogue Needs the Theologians, Not Just the Physicists
Posted on March 28, 2025 Leave a Comment
In the modern dialogue between science and Christian theology, two names loom large: John Polkinghorne and Wolfhart Pannenberg. Both sought to reconcile faith with the empirical rigor of the natural sciences, yet their approaches diverge in ways that reveal a deeper, often unspoken tension in the conversation. Polkinghorne, the physicist-turned-theologian, is frequently cited as a […]
An Elegy for the Sacramental Imagination
Posted on March 22, 2025 Leave a Comment
Karen Armstrong (b. 1944)—British author, scholar, and former Roman Catholic nun—has spent a lifetime interrogating the modern world’s estrangement from the sacred. Since leaving her religious order in 1969, she has emerged as one of the most accessible and thoughtful voices in comparative religion, blending scholarly range with spiritual urgency. Her wide-ranging works—A History of […]
The Weight of Ancient Myths and the Dawn of Genesis
Posted on March 8, 2025 Leave a Comment
This week we completed a brief section on Greek and Ancient Near East mythology in the IF program. As they head into Spring Break, I shared these closing thoughts with them, which I hope will help them as we begin to transition to the Book of Genesis. In the world of ancient myth, humanity crouched […]
Carthage College Intellectual Foundations Panel Talk
Posted on February 22, 2025 1 Comment
I’m speaking on the revamped Intellectual Foundations panel series for Carthage College next month. The idea is to share more publicly the kind of discussions we have in our classes. The first panel is based on the text of Genesis, and is entitled “Must we choose between science and religion?” I’ve approached it, naturally, as […]
The Failure of the Modern Project: Part 1 of 4
Posted on January 20, 2025 1 Comment
O what a world of profit and delight,Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,Is promis’d to the studious artizan!All things that move between the quiet polesShall be at my command: Emperors and KingsAre but obey’d i’ their sev’ral provinces,Nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds;But his dominion that exceeds in this, Stretcheth as […]
Idols of the Mind
Posted on December 20, 2024 Leave a Comment
In an age where faith in traditional religious systems often yields to secular frameworks, the concept of idolatry—once confined to ancient graven images or overtly pagan practices—has taken on a renewed and insidious relevance. Modernity, with its promises of progress, autonomy, and self-realization, has, in many ways, restructured its idols, elevating ideologies, institutions, and material […]