This is the third and final part of a series on Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address on “Faith and Reason”. If you wish, you can start at post 72 if you have not read it yet, and then proceed post 73, but that is not necessary. You can also read this as a standalone. Benedict gave […]
Category Archives: Western Civilization
73. The Regensburg Address of Pope Benedict XVI, Part 2
In the above photo, Pope Benedict prepares to give his Regensburg Address, which resulted in a firestorm of controversy throughout the world. Please read post 72 to get the essential background of this address. In that post, I discussed Pope Benedict’s idea that it was the relationship between Greek philosophy and Christian revelation that built […]
72. The Regensburg Address of Pope Benedict XVI, Part 1
On Tuesday, September 12, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI gave an address to representatives of science from Bavaria at the University of Regensburg, Germany entitled Faith, Reason and the University Memories and Reflections. His 4,000-word address dealt with the very theme of this blog – the relationship between faith and reason, particularly from the perspective of […]
55. Man Is the Measure of All Things
Is man the measure of all things? And what does Protagoras mean by this exactly? Some have called him the father of relativism, but we will see in this article that Protagoras actually meant something very different by his famous statement. Read on to see how this relates to issues such as the Civil Rights […]
51. Heraclitus – Fire as the Universal Principle
This article is a repost of Post 32. This repost was prompted by some very interesting comments and challenges left by an perceptive reader named Al. Below is one of his comments: “Your statement, “Heraclitus did not believe in universal flux” is not accurate at all. You take away Heraclitus’s major contribution to philosophy. Precisely, […]
50. The Volcanic Winter of 536 A.D. and the Beginning of the Dark Ages in the West
A climate catastrophe occurred in 536 A.D. when an Icelandic volcano exploded and covered the earth with ash so thick the entire earth was plunged into a volcanic winter for the next several years. Nothing like this had ever happened before or since. Day looked like night and the temperature dropped significantly. The repercussions of […]
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, 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 the Middle […]
24. The Ionian Philosophical Revival – from Death to Life
The Greek Dark Ages commenced with the fall of Troy in the 12th century.1 It continued for several centuries until a ray of light finally dawned in the region of Ionia in western Asia Minor in the eighth and seven centuries BC.2 This flourishing of art and culture is known as the Ionian Enlightenment or the […]
23. Hesiod and the Creation of the World
“Chaos was first of all, but next appeared Broad-Bosomed Earth.” -Hesiod from Theogony Hesiod’s Theogony was monumental in advancing Greek thinking because its subject matter was no less than the origin of the universe.1 It is the most complete surviving Greek account of the creation of the universe. Hesiod described not only how the universe came into being, but […]
22. Homer – from the Glory of the Battlefield to the Virtue of the Homestead
“My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may meet my end. If I stay and fight, I shall not return alive, but my name will live forever; whereas if I go home my name will die, but it will be long ere death shall take me.”1 -The Iliad, Achilles talking to […]