Table of Contents

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Featured Post published March 3, 2024:

Post 91 Iconography – An Artform Beyond This World: Explore the fascinating aspects of the first uniquely Christian artform that is still being practiced today.

I. Introduction

Post 1 The Harmony and Tension Between Faith and Reason: From St. Paul’s speech at at Areopagus to the modern age, this post gives a sweeping bird’s eye view to the development of the relationship between Faith and Reason.

II. Socrates, Father of Philosophy Series

This series of short posts gives an overview of the life and legacy of Socrates, the Father of Philosophy.

Post 2 Socrates’ Death and the Triumph of Reason: This dramatic post recounts the final tragic hours of Socrates’ life and his execution.

Post 3 Socrates the Wisest Man in Athens: How did Socrates became the wisest man in Greece?

Post 4 Socrates the Humble Revolutionary: Socrates was a true reformer rather than a revolutionary

Post 5 Socrates an Ambassador of Truth to Athens: Socrates was a mystic who was guided by a divine voice.

Post 6 Socrates, Martyr for the Truth: Socrates’ death for truth changed the course of Western Civilization.

Post 7 Socrates a Philosopher of Virtue and Truth: Socrates impacted Western Civilization in two important ways.

Post 8 Socrates and the Unexamined Life: This is my most popular post by far. Read it and find out why.

Post 9 Socrates and Jesus Compared: Read about the remarkable comparisons between Socrates, the Father of Philosophy, and Jesus, the Author of Faith.

Post 67 Plato’s Apology: Socrates’ Defense at His Trial Before His Execution, Part 1: In this post I discuss the dramatic trial of Socrates as recounted by Plato in his Apology. This dialogue is essential for understanding Socrates the man.

Post 68 Plato’s Apology: Socrates’ Defense at His Trial Before His Execution, Part 2: In part 2 of Apology, we get to know the human side of Socrates like in no other dialogue or writing.

III. Abraham, Father of Faith Series

This series of short posts gives an overview of the life and legacy of Abraham, the Father of Faith. Since this blog deals with both reason and faith, it is only appropriate to learn about how Abraham became the Father of Faith.

Post 10 Discover Abraham’s Birthplace of the Ancient City of Ur: Learn about Abraham by learning about the city of his birth.

Post 11 Abraham, the Father of Faith: Abraham’s faith in revealed truth was just as rational as belief in empirical knowledge.

Post 12 Abraham the Worshipper of Strange Idols: Did Abraham worship idols?

Post 13 Abraham Called by God from Paganism to be a Blessing to the Nations: Abraham is called to leave Ur to embark on a 1200mile journey.

Post 14 God Makes a Covenant with Abraham: What does the covenant of Abraham have to do with Environmentalism?

Post 15 Abraham Worships God in the Midst of the Canaanites: Abraham’s worship centered around the altar.

Post 16 Abraham’s Trying Challenge and Melchizedek’s Rich Blessing: This post give a much better understanding of who Melchizedek was by taking into consideration historical context.

Post 17 Do Not be Afraid Abraham for your Reward will be Very Great: God binds Himself to Abraham in a solemn covenant that has ramifications for the entire world.

Post 18 God Commands Abraham to be Circumcised as a Sign and Seal of the Covenant: The Covenant that God made with Abraham is the heart of the salvation of the world.

Post 19 Abraham’s Hope in Sacrificing his Son Isaac: The sacrifice of Isaac was central and essential to the fulfilling of God’s covenant with Abraham.

Post 20 Abraham is Justified by Faith and Works: Abraham justified by faith and works flows naturally out of the understanding of the ancient Hebrew concept of “word.”

IV. Introduction to the Presocratic Philosophers

Post 22 Homer – from the Glory of the Battlefield to the Virtue of the Homestead: In Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, we start to see the beginning of a transition of mythology to the more rationalistic explanations of the Presocratic philosophers.

Post 23 Hesiod and the Creation of the World: Hesiod was the first Greek thinker to speculate on origins of the universe.

Post 24 The Ionian Philosophical Revival – from Death to Life: Read about the remarkable cultural renaissance that occurred in Ionia leading to the the beginnings of Greek philosophy.

V. The Presocratic Philosophers

Post 25 Thales Determines that Water is the Source of Everything: Thales is considered the first philosopher. Read this post to find out why.

Post 26 Anaximander of Miletus Discovers Infinity in a Boundless Universe: What does Anaximander have in common with Nietzsche in regards to infinity? Read this post to find out what.

Post 28 Anaximenes – Air, the Spirit, and the Soul: In his musings about air being the source of all things, he may have inadvertently stumbled upon the concept of the soul.

Post 29 Pythagoras Discovers the Beauty and Harmony of the Cosmos: Read about the connection between Pythagoras and the the ugly architecture that is all around us today.

Post 31 Xenophanes and the Corruption of the gods: This is a very fascinating post about the first philosopher from the Eleatic (Southern Italy) school who posited the idea that God is one in opposition to the polytheistic Greek Homeric gods. Was he the first monotheist?

1. Series on the Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus

Of all of the Presocratic philosophers, Heraclitus is my favorite so I expanded him into a little series. He could pack multiple meanings into a single word or phrase and he used literary devices such as chiasms and alliteration. He was at the same time profound and provocative.

Post 32 Heraclitus – Fire as the Universal Principle: This post will introduce you to the brooding hermit who, at the same time, was the most aloof and most engaging Presocratic philosopher. He was a philosopher of paradoxes.

Post 51 Heraclitus – Fire as the Universal Principle: This is a repost of Post 32 that was prompted by some interesting comments and challenges left by an astute reader. Read this post to see what all of the controversy is about.

Post 33 Heraclitus Declares that All Things are One: In this post I discuss Heraclitus’ personal encounter with the Logos and the ramifications for his philosophy.

Post 34 Heraclitus Finds Logos in the Soul: Heraclitus expands the concept of Logos to something much larger than himself or indeed humanity.

2. Series on the Presocratic philosopher Parmenides

Post 42 Parmenides Experiences Enlightenment in the Realm of Deep Darkness: This post introduces Parmenides, an enigmatic figure to say the least, who taught us that darkness comes before enlightenment.

Post 43 Parmenides the Priest-Physician Discovers Mystical Healing Powers of Life: This post starts by discussing Parmenides as a healer and ends with a critique of modern medicine.

Post 44 Parmenides Discovers Being and the Origin of the Universe: Parmenides discovered one the the most fundamental ideas of reality, that of Being. As such, he can be considered the founder of the branch of metaphysics called ontology.

3. Series on Zeno’s Paradoxes

Post 45 Zeno’s Paradoxes – You Can’t Get There from Here: Read this post to find out how Zeno’s paradoxes influenced everything from ancient Greek thought to quantum physics.

Post 46 Zeno’s Paradoxes – The Discovery of the Infinite in the Finite: This fascinating post discusses the paradox of the infinite fitting within the finite. This paradox was proven by a mathematician in the 20th century who eventually went insane pondering the thought.

4. Continuation of Presocratic Philosophers

Post 47 Anaxagoras – Mind as the Origin of the Universe: Anaxagoras names Mind as the unifying principle of all things. In his ideas we see the seed form of what would later become philosophical theism. Also, 2021 is the 2500th anniversary of Anaxagoras moving to Athens and founding the first school of philosophy there.

Post 48 Empedocles – Love and Strife: For Empedocles, Love and Strife are the dynamic forces that make the world go around. Was he projecting his marriage onto the universe or was he onto something metaphysical? Also, read about the man who came up with the idea of the four elements – earth, air, fire, and water.

Post 52 From Democritus to Einstein – Atomists Discover the Secrets of the Universe: Read about how the Greeks discovered on of the smallest particles know to man and how this eventually led to the benevolent and destructive uses of atomic energy.

VI. The Sophists

Post 53 The Greek Sophists – Authentic Philosophers or Purveyors of Deception?: Were they ancient Sophists charlatans who deceived the people, philosophers in their own right, or simply good teachers of rhetoric who provided a needed service to the city of Athens? Read this post to find out.

Post 54 Protagoras – The First Sophist and Philosophical Revolutionary: This is a fascinating discussion on how the Protagoras’ ideas opened the door to discussions on epistemology and jurisprudence.

Post 55 Man is the Measure of All Things: Was Protagoras a relativist to did he believe in absolute truth? And what does this have to do with the civil rights movement of the 20th century and abortion?

VII. Dramatic Series on the Life of Plato

Post 57 Plato – The Greatest Philosopher: This is the introduction to the life of the greatest philosopher who had ever lived. Read this post that has fact as well as plenty of drama to understand the life of Plato.

Post 58 Plato – The Greatest Philosopher 2: The story of Plato continues as we meet the young Plato, his upbringing and education, his first encounter with Socrates, and his fleeing Athens after the death of Socrates.

Post 59 Plato in Egypt – The Greatest Philosopher 3: Did Plato “steal” his Theory of Forms from Egyptians. Some people think so. Regardless, read this post to see how Plato and the Greeks were greatly indebted to the Egyptians for their philosophy.

Post 60 Plato’s First Visit to Sicily – The Greatest Philosopher 4: Plato nearly gets himself killed as he talks about virtue to a tyrant. It seems that tyrants react too well too well to discussions about virtue. Just ask Socrates.

Post 61 Plato Establishes His Academy – The Greatest Philosopher 5: Get the behind the scenes approach to the founding of Plato’s Academy. Most likely, his Academy was much different from how most people imagine it.

Post 62 Plato’s Great Political Failures in Sicily and Beyond: This post finishes the series on Plato’s life. Much of what we learn from his visits to Sicily has application to today as we live under the shadow of tyranny. Although this post is non-dramatic like the previous ones, I am sure that you will find it interesting nevertheless.

VIII. Plato’s Dialogues

Post 63 Plato’s Dialogues: Alcibiades and the Challenge of Self-Examination: This is one of Plato’s first dialogues, and as such is a great introduction to the rest of his dialogues. In it he introduces the theme of self-examination which undergirds the rest of his work. Proclus called this dialogue “the beginning of all philosophy.”

Post 64 Socrates’ Authentic Search for Piety in Plato’s Dialogue Euthyphro: Socrates exposes the true reasons why he was prosecuted by interrogating a young, arrogant man on the nature of piety.

Post 65 Euthyphro’s Dilemma and the Relationship Between God and Goodness: This post takes and excursion into the world of ethic using Socrates’ main question from post 64 as a springboard.

Post 67 Plato’s Apology: Socrates’ Defense at His Trial Before His Execution, Part 1: Socrates adeptly makes a defense against his accusers of the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, leaving them speechless.

Post 68 Plato’s Apology: Socrates’ Defense at His Trial Before His Execution, Part 2: In part 2 of Apology, we get to know the human side of Socrates like in no other dialogue or writing.

Post 69 Plato’s Crito: Crito’s Attempt to Rescue Socrates from Death, Part 1: In this dialogue, Socrates is compared to, of all people, the great warrior Achilles. Also, the man Crito teaches us how not to respond to a crisis.

Post 71 Plato’s ‘Crito’: Crito’s Attempt to Rescue Socrates from Death, Part 2 In this dialogue, Plato introduces the concept of the Social Contract Theory.

Post 75 The Essence of Virtue – Plato’s ‘Meno’ Part 1: Socrates seeks for the essence of virtue, but the answer is not as straightforward as you might think.

Post 76 Plato’s ‘Meno’ Part 2; A Common Uneducated Slave Does Geometry: Socrates introduces the subject of innate ideas that later thinkers like Descartes and Jung would expand upon.

Post 78 Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 1: On the day of his execution, Socrates calmly discusses the soul and the afterlife.

Post 79 Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 2: Socrates gives three arguments for the existence of the soul.

Post 80 Phaedo on the Soul and the Afterlife, Part 3: Where do souls go after they die? Socrates answers that question in a way that you wouldn’t expect.

Post 85 Plato’s Dialogue ‘Ion’ -Inspiration in Poetry, Human, Divine, or Demonic?: In this dialogue, we gain insight into Plato’s ideas of art and beauty which clarifies some things and obscures others.

Post 89 Plato’s Dialogue Laches, What is Bravery?, Part I: In an age where fear is upheld as virtue, we must go back to basics and ask the important question of what is the nature of bravery.

Post 53 The Greek Sophists – Authentic Philosophers or Purveyors of Deception?: In this post about the Sophists, I introduce the first of what I hope to be many discussions on Plato’s dialogues. Read this post to learn about Plato’s fascinating dialogue entitled Protagoras.

Post 54 Protagoras – The First Sophist and Philosophical Revolutionary: In this post, I introduce Plato’s dialogue Theaetetus where Socrates queries two underlings concerning Protagoras’ statement, “Man is the measure of all things.”

IX. Series on the Idea of Logos – from Greek Philosophy to Christian Theology

This series dovetails off of Heraclitus’ concept of “logos” where I trace the Greek word “logos” from a term that simply meant “word” or “speech” to St. John’s concept of the Logos as the Son of God. This is an incredible journey indeed!

Post 32 Heraclitus – Fire as the Universal Principle: Under Heraclitus’ influence, the simple world “logos” was transformed into a deep philosophical concept. Read this post to see the beginning of this process.

Post 33 Heraclitus Declares that All Things are One: Read about how the Logos revealed to Heraclitus that “everything is one.”

Post 34 Heraclitus Finds Logos in the Soul : Heraclitus expands the Logos from the unity of all things to the wise principle that orders and governs everything.

Post 35 Logos: from Heraclitus to the Stoics: Heraclitus left a legacy that was picked up by the Stoics who built upon Heraclitus’ concept of logos. The Stoics expanded the his concept of Logos by giving to a more deterministic emphasis, calling this logos, “fate” or “god.”

Post 36 Philo of Alexandria -a Jewish Perspective of Logos: Philo was a Jewish philosopher who was the first to bridge the gap between the Greek concept of logos and the Hebrew concept of “Word of God” thus setting the stage for the idea of logos to be used in Christian theology.

Post 37 Philo’s Breakthrough with Logos – from Greek Abstraction to Living Being: Philo described Logos as Son of God, Mediator between heaven and earth, Wisdom of God, among other things pointing the way to Jesus Christ himself.

Post 38 St. John Declares that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Logos – Creator of the Universe: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” now has much more meaning to the reader knowing all that has come before in the previous posts.

Post 39 Justin Martyr Reveals the Profound Truth of Logos Spermatikos: The concept of Logos came into full bloom under early Church Fathers like Justin Martyr. They used the idea of Logos to find commonality with the pagan world as a connection by which the could evangelize them.

X. Understanding History

Post 21 Divine Revelation and the Ultimate Purpose of History: There is an ultimate purpose to all of history and this post discusses what it is.

Post 49 God Becomes Man at the Center Point of History: Read about how the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the central event of all human history.

Post 50 The Volcanic Winter of 536 A.D. and the Beginning of the Dark Ages in the West: Come take a fascinating journey through the early Middle Ages and you will find intriguing things there that you have heard before like the volcanic winter of 536 A.D., true climate change. Read this post to understand the dramatic historical events behind the formation of modern Europe.

XI. Eastern Thought

Post 40 The Great Awakening in China – Discovery of the Tao: Of all of the ancient cultures, the Chinese culture was the most monotheistic reflecting their understanding of the Logos.

Post 41 Lao Tzu Discovers Christ in the Wisdom of the Tao: Lao Tzu came face to face to Christ in his thoughts and meditations and explained him more fully than anyone else aside from special revelation.

XII. Issues of Faith and Reason

Post 72 The Regensburg Address of Pope Benedict XVI, Part 1: Read about Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address and why it caused a firestorm across the world.

Post 73 The Regensburg Address of Pope Benedict XVI, Part 2: In part 2, Benedict takes a deep dive into how Martin Luther, Kant, and now multiculturalism, have all played their part in separating faith and reason.

Post 74 Faith and Reason – The Regensburg Address of Pope Benedict XVI, Part 3: Uniting faith and reason as the only hope for the future.

XIII. Political Philosophy

Post 30 On Those Who Suppress the Truth – Power vs. Authority: Since the Enlightenment, raw power has replaced divine authority.

Post 55 Man is the Measure of All Things: Should we build a society on natural law or positive law and do you know the difference? This article will explain the difference and discuss why it is really a matter of life and death, freedom versus oppression.

Post 62 Plato’s Great Political Failures in Sicily and Beyond: Plato’s conflicts with the Sicilian tyrants give teach us in microcosm about the nature of tyranny. This is a relevant post considering that the West is living under the shadow of tyranny.

Post 81 Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Divisive Harvard Address, ‘A World Split Apart’,1978, Part 1: Soviet Union critic Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave a Harvard Commencement Address in 1978 where he was not less scrutinizing of the faults and blind spots of the West.

Post 82 Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Divisive Harvard Address, ‘A World Split Apart’,1978, Part 2: In part 2, Solzhenitsyn covers an interesting take on the free press which is disappearing in the West, and the West’s misguided infatuation with Socialism.

Post 83 Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Divisive Harvard Address, ‘A World Split Apart’,1978, Part 3: In part 3, Solzhenitsyn traces many of the ills of the modern West back to the Enlightenment.

Post 84 Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Divisive Harvard Address, ‘A World Split Apart’,1978, Part 4: In the final installment on this series, Solzhenitsyn finds more similarity than differences between Capitalism and Communism.

XIV. Art and Beauty

Post 85 Plato’s Dialogue ‘Ion’ -Inspiration in Poetry, Human, Divine, or Demonic?: In this dialogue, we gain insight into Plato’s ideas of art and beauty which clarifies some things and obscures others.

Post 86 Plato’s Love-Hate Relationship with the Arts, Part I: The dialogue Ion opened the door to delve deeper into Plato’s fascinating and seemingly contradictory view of the art. His ideas of great relevance for our modern times often characterized by ugliness.

Post 87 Plato’s Love-Hate Relationship with the Art, Part II: Plato eventually said, “Banish all artists!” Why such an extreme statement. Read this post to find out.

Post 91 Iconography – An Artform Beyond This World: Explore the fascinating aspects of the first uniquely Christian artform that is still being practiced today.

XV. Ethics

Post 55 Man is the Measure of All Things: Was Protagoras advocating relativism when he uttered his famous saying?

Post 64 Euthyphro’s Dilemma and the Relationship Between God and Goodness: Is something good because God declares it to be, or does God declare it to be because it is good?

XVI. Climate Change

Post 50 The Volcanic Winter of 536 A.D. and the Beginning of the Dark Ages in the West: Read about real climate change when an Icelandic volcano erupted and blocked out the sun for several years.

Post 66 The Only Way to Save the Earth: Is climate change the biggest threat to humanity or is there something even more sinister?

XVII. Conversations and Debate with Readers

Post 51 Heraclitus of Ephesus 2: This is a repost of Post 32 that was prompted by some interesting comments and challenges left by an astute reader. Read this post to see what all of the controversy is about.

XVIII. Annual Christmas Post

Post 27 Jesus, Food for a Spiritually-Starved World: In this first installment of my annual Christmas post, I discuss the Eucharist with a little bit of Aristotle thrown in for good measure.

Post 49 God Becomes Man in at the Center Point of History: Read about how the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the central event of all human history.

Post 70 The True Meaning of Christmas – Killing Serpents: Read about the true meaning of Christmas without the inane sentimentalism that is so prevalent.

Post 88 Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity: Take an historical and architectural journey to one of the most interesting and oldest Christian holy sites in the world.

XIX. Annual Easter Post

Post 56 The Hope of Resurrection and the Hopelessness of Reincarnation: In this post I discuss both the theological and metaphysical aspects of the Resurrection and why it is the only hope for the human race. I also discuss how St. Paul developed a beautiful doctrine of the Resurrection out of his preaching failure in Athens, Greece.

Post 77 The Death and Resurrection of Israel: Learn how the destruction and restoration of Israel in the Old Testament corresponds to the death and resurrection of Christ. This is material that you will not get anywhere else.