Posted in faith, pluralism on 27 October 2006 | 1 Comment »
The second positive ‘function’ that faith can have (when it’s operating properly) is that of deliverance. Here Volf pointed out the basic reality that most of us struggle to find ways to deal with failure and disappointment in our lives. Faith in God functions in that it gives us ways of both understanding [...]
Posted in faith, pluralism on 24 October 2006 | 6 Comments »
So if faith is malfunctioning when it leans toward either idleness or coerciveness, what is the proper role of faith in contemporary life? Volf wrapped up his lectures by summarizing four key areas where faith can contribute to what he called a ‘counter-culture for the common good’. (I always find it [...]
Posted in faith, pluralism on 23 October 2006 | 4 Comments »
Interesting article in the October 9 edition of Time Magazine on how ’spiritual doubt’ could be the key to defusing tensions between the rival fundamentalisms of East and West. Andrew Sullivan’s ‘When Not Seeing is Believing‘ is an argument for a greater humility in terms of what can be known about God and a [...]
Posted in faith, pluralism on 18 October 2006 | 10 Comments »
The other prominent sign that faith is malfunctioning, according to Volf, is an effort to combine it with force, whether that force is used to make others ‘convert’ or whether it involves a concerted effort to make society look more Christian. This, he argues, is a misunderstanding of what faith actually is.
So many [...]
Posted in faith, pluralism on 16 October 2006 | No Comments »
I’m back from a really enjoyable couple of days in Vancouver where I had the opportunity to listen to Miroslav Volf present the 2006 Laing Lectures. His lectures were entitled “A Voice of One’s Own: Public Faith in a Pluralistic World” and it was very interesting to hear his take on how the Christian [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on 14 October 2006 | 5 Comments »
Some days it’s awesome to be a Flame fan…
Posted in Uncategorized on 13 October 2006 | 1 Comment »
Some days it hurts to be an England fan…
Posted in faith, pluralism on 10 October 2006 | 2 Comments »
Christmas comes in October this year. I’m off to Vancouver tomorrow for the 2006 Laing Lectures at Regent College. This year’s lectures will be given by Miroslav Volf of Yale Divinity School and are entitled “A Voice of One’s Own: Public Faith in a Pluralistic World”. I was first introduced to [...]
Posted in epistemology on 3 October 2006 | 3 Comments »
Some recent reading has got me curious about the idea of human inquiry (or the pursuit of knowledge) and whether or not it is possible to do this ‘freely’. This question was addressed by contrasting the way people have thought about ‘inquiry’ during three distinct periods of human history. Essentially the questions being asked are: [...]
