Author Archives: admin

In Defence of Christmas Stories

I once noted that there seems to be no part of holy writ so well defended from the pulpit as the story of the wandering Magi and the Christmas star. It seems also that every year my Christmas reflections are … Continue reading

Posted in on Sacred texts | Comments Off on In Defence of Christmas Stories

“Christmas comes again”

“Christmas comes again”—so begins one of my favourite songs of this festive season, perhaps the most convivial of times reserved for celebration, for gathering together in high-minded good will and good cheer. Yet, there are some who are perturbed by … Continue reading

Posted in on Sacred texts | Comments Off on “Christmas comes again”

on Things Foreign–A Divertimento

There is this lesson given in the Chandogya Upanishad, a sacred text of Hinduism. “Just as a bird, tied to a string will fly around in all directions, and finding no resting place anywhere else, will resort to the very … Continue reading

Posted in on Etiquette for the soul, Philosophical and other fragments | Comments Off on on Things Foreign–A Divertimento

Occidental Ideas, Part 25: Peroration and Peregrination

A young man, recounting to me his university years, explained that he had initially taken some courses in philosophy and theology but, finding them nebulous, opted to embrace a career in a field of intellectual surety, in science. Internally I … Continue reading

Posted in on Denial, Doubt, and Divinity, on Etiquette for the soul, Philosophical and other fragments | Comments Off on Occidental Ideas, Part 25: Peroration and Peregrination

Occidental Ideas, Part 24: World Process

Philosophy and theology have anciently exhibited a difficulty in harmonizing the temporal and eternal, the ideal and real, the phenomenal and noumenal. The rationalists and empiricists of early modern thought intensified the bifurcation of reality with Kant providing a compromise, … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophical and other fragments | Comments Off on Occidental Ideas, Part 24: World Process

Occidental Ideas, Part 23: Word Games

From Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle through to the great scholastics and on to the modern masters, all philosophers of note have been at pains to proceed logically, and to begin by defining their terms as clearly as possible. That is … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophical and other fragments | Comments Off on Occidental Ideas, Part 23: Word Games

Occidental Ideas, Part 22: Positivism and Pragmatism

Existentialism arises in response to the abstractness proffered by the post-Kantian infatuation with an absolute creative ego as spun out in the works of Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, et al., and it contrarily posits the individual as the ultimate point of … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophical and other fragments | Comments Off on Occidental Ideas, Part 22: Positivism and Pragmatism