Monthly Archives: December 2015

“We Are Servants, Not Messiahs”

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

  Below is the Vatican’s English translation of the Pope’s talk last Monday: Dear brothers and sisters, I am pleased to offer heartfelt good wishes for a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year to you and your co-workers, to the … Continue reading →

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FREE Guide –> How to Easily Read the Whole Bible in 2016

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

We’re right around the corner from 2016, so now is a good time to ask yourself: Why not commit to reading the entire Bible in 2016? It’s not as hard as you might think. The Bible contains around 775,000 words. … Continue reading →

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A Medieval Antidote to ISIS

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

Originally at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/opinion/a-medieval-antidote-to-isis.html by Mustafa Akyol ISTANBUL — THE recent massacres in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., demonstrated, once again, the so-called Islamic State’s ability to win over disaffected Muslims. Using a mixture of textual literalism and self-righteous certainty, the extremist group … Continue reading →

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‘Star Wars’: The return of the transcendent

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

Originally at: http://www.cruxnow.com/life/2015/12/26/star-wars-the-return-of-the-transcendent/ by Charles C. Camosy “Daddy, he’s real.” She had seen computer-generated Yoda from the prequels, but upon seeing the actual puppet in “The Empire Strikes Back,” Simon Pegg’s daughter couldn’t contain her wonder. When Pegg (who has a cameo … Continue reading →

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Last-minute politics overshadow historic pan-Orthodox council

Posted on December 27, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

Originally at: http://www.religionnews.com/2015/12/18/last-minute-politics-overshadow-historic-pan-orthodox-council/ by Tom Heneghan PARIS (RNS) A religious summit last held more than 1,200 years ago suddenly risks being downgraded or postponed because of Syria’s four-year civil war. This unexpected twist has come as the world’s Orthodox churches, the second-largest ecclesial … Continue reading →

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Joyous Surrender: A Rhapsody in Red (and Green)

Posted on December 26, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

Originally at: http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/12/16183/ by Joseph Bottum I love the elegant Christmas-dining pictures in Bon Appétit. The holiday dishes and cutlery in the pricey Williams-Sonoma catalogue. The winter ornaments and widgets arranged so beautifully by Restoration Hardware. The season’s advertisements in the New Yorker, the Sunday Times magazine, House Beautiful, and … Continue reading →

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Christmas and Western Civilization

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

Originally at http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/12/16174/ by Carson Holloway The holiday season has many traditions, some ancient, some modern. Among the most recent is a paradoxical one: complaints, yearly renewed, about the public recognition of Christmas as a religious celebration. As these observances get underway, … Continue reading →

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Magical thinking about progress won’t save planet Earth

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

Originally at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2015/dec/17/magical-thinking-about-progress-wont-save-planet-earth by Giles Fraser Perhaps, as never before, we look to the future to deal with the problems of the present. We anticipate future successes, then price them into the challenges of today. Take the recent Paris climate summit, a … Continue reading →

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Dean of Orthodox Jewish Theologians, Dies at 87

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

Originally at: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/196026/michael-wyschogrod-obit by David P. Goldman The Jewish philosopher Michael Wyschogrod died Dec. 17 at the age of 87, after a long illness. He was old enough to have stood with his father across the street from Berlin’s main synagogue as … Continue reading →

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Could America Survive without Religion?

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Thomas J. Neal, Ph.D.

Originally at: http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/11/16037/ by Robert George John Adams famously said that our Constitution was made “only for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Was he right? Perhaps the first thing to note … Continue reading →

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