Plato’s Euthyphro is one of the more famous of the shorter dialogues. Several of the major themes are brought up in the dialogue include theology, ethics, and filialism. As such, we will briefly examine the major themes and their impact on philosophy and, by the end, we shall see how these seemingly unrelated issues are, in fact, … Continue reading Plato’s “Euthyphro”: The Death of Piety and the Triumph of the State
religion
Hegel’s Philosophy of History (2/4): The Role of Religion and Culture in History
Continuing with Hegel’s philosophy of history we will move into one of the most important, but often neglected, aspects of Hegel’s philosophy: the role of religion as the source of society and culture. Throughout his works, Hegel comments on religion, the power of religion, and the role of religion in society and shaping national character and spirit. … Continue reading Hegel’s Philosophy of History (2/4): The Role of Religion and Culture in History
Book News
Great news everyone, the manuscript which I was a contributor for has passed the referring with Lexington Press (U.S.). It will be published in the Fall of 2019 under the title: The College Lecture Today: An Interdisciplinary Defense for the Contemporary University. I have a chapter examining the pedagogy of the religious lecture examining the … Continue reading Book News
Introduction to Plato: Oriental Platonism
Many people have likely come across the idea of Oriental Platonism? Oriental Platonism has a long history which is deeply intricate related to many factors: Aryanism, Indo-Europeanism, and other mystical anthropologies which rose to prominence in the late nineteenth century. While I will likely deal with this subject in fuller detail at some time in … Continue reading Introduction to Plato: Oriental Platonism
Terror, the Sublime, and Catholicism
“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime, that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind … Continue reading Terror, the Sublime, and Catholicism
Aquinas and the Ladder of Being
St. Thomas Aquinas is one of the most recognizable names in Christian history and the Christian intellectual tradition. While generally held up as the perennial philosopher in the Catholic tradition, especially among Catholic realists, he is also loved—perhaps begrudgingly—by many in the Protestant world especially the so-called Reformed scholastics. There is also a lot of … Continue reading Aquinas and the Ladder of Being
Aesthetics, Morality, Spirituality and the Ecological Crisis
Conservation is at the heart of conservatism. And the root of our contemporary ecological crisis is a careless, profligate mode of relating to the world; Francis Bacon would be proud of our current disposition as tormentors of nature. Conservatism’s stance toward the natural world, and the ecological crisis, sets it apart from the other philosophies … Continue reading Aesthetics, Morality, Spirituality and the Ecological Crisis
Nihilism, Video Games, and the Art of Aesthetical Immersion: Or Why “Life is Strange” Was an Amazing Game
Later this year, my contribution to an anthology on pedagogy dealing with narrative and persona immersion in religion should be published. Drawing on St. Augustine, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Walter Ong, I was arguing that the special relationship between religion, orality, and the synthetic relationship between the monomyth to the human psyche, will ensure … Continue reading Nihilism, Video Games, and the Art of Aesthetical Immersion: Or Why “Life is Strange” Was an Amazing Game
Roger Scruton’s Lebenswelt: A Review of “The Soul of the World”
Roger Scruton is one of the most eminent English-speaking philosophers; a scholar in aesthetics, political philosophy, Spinoza, and Kant (and subsequently Kantianism and post-Kantianism), he is a well-known conservative in the proper sense and use of the term. A skeptic toward market fundamentalism, a critic of the faux virtue and “care” pretentiously claimed in socialism, … Continue reading Roger Scruton’s Lebenswelt: A Review of “The Soul of the World”
Augustine’s City of God, II: What was the Cause of Rome’s “Greatness” (Part I)
The sack of Rome prompted pagan critics of Christianity to charge that it was the adoption of Christianity which led to Rome’s upheaval and tragic sacking at the hands of Alaric. These critics charged that if Rome had stayed true to their old gods then those gods would have looked over Rome and sparred her … Continue reading Augustine’s City of God, II: What was the Cause of Rome’s “Greatness” (Part I)
