* John Farrell has a good post on the lack of priests who are scientists. I'm inclined to think that O'Malley is conflating two different things: the problem that arose was not due to the definition of Modernism, which is actually quite precise, but the practical mechanisms Pius X put into place in the attempt to deal with the heresy, which, being easily subverted for partisan ends, led to the kinds of problems he noted. (I think it is notable that Benedict XV, who put an end to most of the heresy hunts, is actually much more vague, not less, about Modernism; this didn't aggravate the problem because he started changing the practical means for dealing with it.) But the general point, I think, is probably right.
* Sean Carroll discusses what physicists mean when they say a theory seems unnatural.
* George Weigel has a good post on Lent as an 'annual catechumenate'.
* The Syriac Orthodox Church recently elected a new patriarch. The Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch is an Oriental Orthodox church, which means they accepted the first three ecumenical councils (Nicaea, First Constantinople, Ephesus) but not the Council of Chalcedon. By the official lists the new Patriarch, Aphrem II Karim, is 123rd Patriarch of Antioch in the Syriac Orthodox line.
* Ashok Karra discusses property and the pursuit of happiness in Xenophon's Cyropaedia.
* Heidi Howkins Lockwood has an excellent post on apologies at "Feminist Philosophers".
ADDED LATER
* Saudi Arabia has expanded its legal definition of terrorism to include advocacy of atheism. Saudi Arabia has been having difficulty with political unrest recently, so naturally anything seen as attacking Islam, on which the regime depends, is seen as a political attack on the government.
