This is my fourth annual Christmas post. That is hard to believe. This year, I thought that I would do something different. Instead of taking a philosophical or theological approach to Christmas, I decided to take more of a historical and archaeological approach and discuss the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. This church not […]
Category Archives: Theology and Biblical Studies
80. Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 3
Despite all of our technology, the Greeks were, in many ways, wiser than we are. We should not mistake knowledge for wisdom, for we have much more knowledge. They were wiser for many reasons, but especially because they recognized that human beings have immortal souls, something that we have lost today. This is the subject […]
79. Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 2
Many people think about the afterlife on a regular basis, while others avoid the subject. But coming to grips with our mortality is essential if we are going to have any sort of meaningful life. This is what Plato’s Phaedo is all about. After all, as the saying goes, if you don’t know how to die, […]
78. Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 1
Phaedo deals with the remaining hours of Socrates’ life. As such, there is much we can learn from it. The contrast above is stark and represents what Socrates accomplished in his death: turning the West from a violence-based culture to one of reason. On the right, we have the famous Greek hero Achilles, whose death […]
77. The Death and Resurrection of Israel
Since the beginning of human history, nations and empires have risen and fallen. We live in interesting times, when the United States Empire and even the West itself appear to have collapsed. Western Civilization will lose the progress it has made in a few decades if things continue as they are. In light of these events, my […]
70. The True Meaning of Christmas – Killing Serpents
In reality, many of us do not look forward to Christmas because it is a time of stress at worst, or syrupy sentimentalism at best. This is because we have lost the true meaning of Christmas – the killing of serpents. Once we realize that killing serpents is the true meaning of Christmas, it will […]
56. The Hope of Resurrection and the Hopelessness of Reincarnation
In the West, we have three main beliefs concerning the afterlife – materialistic annihilation, reincarnation, and resurrection. Before continuing with this post, stop briefly for a moment and consider what your view is of the afterlife, if indeed you have given it much thought. Please leave your comments below.
49. God Becomes Man at the Center Point of History
In my second annual Christmas post, I would like to highlight for you one of my most favorite paintings of all time. It is entitled The Annunciation, by Fra Angelico. The Annunciation – when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to have the Christ child – was a common art theme in […]
39. Justin Martyr Reveals the Profound Truth of Logos Spermatikos
Well, we have finally come to the end of this miniseries on Logos that started in post 32 with Heraclitus and will end with the life of Justin Martyr in this post. The operative question we’re asking in this post is why Justin Martyr is so important in exploring the relationship between reason and revelation, […]
38. St. John Declares that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Logos – Creator of the Universe
When John called Jesus “the Logos” in chapter 1 of his Gospel, did he have the Greek philosophical term in mind, or was he simply using the Greek generic term for “word” as he uses in other places in his New Testament writings? This is the operative question. Scholars debate just how much the Greek […]