This sense that Christianity is not just a demonstration - not only the sort of thing that might please a secular academic or a scientist - but also a performance, is a rebuke to pagan, secular and other urges that seek to replace hope with nihilism.
If what we do in faith is not just philosophy but also an encounter and relationship with reason and meaning Himself, if human beings are, by hope, clicked into some new way of living, Christians "know in general terms that…life will not end in emptiness."
* Biblia Clerus is a great website, run by the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, that allows you to look at what Church Fathers and Doctors have said on various passages of Scripture. It takes a bit to figure out how to navigate it, and it still needs some work (particularly with regard to the amount of content offered in different languages) but it's worth it.
* On the daughters of sloth, Michael Gilleland gives the Latin for Isidore's list. It seems reasonable to give the Latin for Gregory's list as well:
Assignat autem Gregorius, XXXI Moral., sex filias acediae, quae sunt malitia, rancor, pusillanimitas, desperatio, torpor circa praecepta, vagatio mentis circa illicita....
* St. Photius's Mystagogy, which I've argued before should be taken more seriously in the West. (ht)
* I am currently reading Lamoreaux's translations of the works of ninth-century Melkite theologian, Theodore Abu Qurrah (PDF). It's good stuff; you can expect a post or two on it in the coming weeks.
* Please keep GoodSearch in mind as an easy way to raise a bit of pocket money for your favorite charities.
* Bent Flyvbjerg, Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research (PDF)
* Mark Wilson, Duhem Before Breakfast (PDF). A problem with the article is that Duhem is not an anti-realist, in any general and meaningful sense of the term; he is, rather, a positivist about physical theory, and the two positions are not the same. But the paper does a good job of noting a type of argument in Duhem that is often overlooked, and the problems that can be posed for it.
* Michael Pakaluk notes a connection between the White Rose Society and Plato.
* Must One Believe in God Before Miracles? at "FQI"
* Atheist Sunday schools. I actually think it's a good idea for atheists to consider this sort of thing (the Unitarian Universalist approach to atheism, so to speak); but I confess I can't imagine a bunch of people singing "I'm Unique and Unrepeatable" to the tune of "Ten Little Indians" without finding it hilariously funny, in a way that, say, the lovely "Die Gedanken Sind Frei" or even the overrated "Imagine," which put solidarity front and center, are not. Perhaps next they can sing "I'm Special" or "I Am Special".
* Speaking of which, YouTube has a good selection of songs from one of the best cover bands out there, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
