Cultural and Intellectual Historian
“In fact, while the climate of widespread moral uncertainty can in some way be explained by the multiplicity and gravity of today's social problems, and these can sometimes mitigate the subjective responsibility of individuals, it is no less true that we are confronted by an even larger reality, which can be described as a veritable … Continue reading Towards a Thanatocene Spirituality
A very important note about sources: Several structures, themes, and ideas of this message, especially some text enclosed in quotation marks, has been lifted from the course, available on the udemy platform, entitled, “Paul and His Letter to the Ephesians,” the copyright for which belongs to N.T. Wright Online, 2016. Also see the relevant sections … Continue reading Sermon: Outside the Party?
I have always said that Los Angeles wasn't the city for me—that doing life in L.A. would be a catastrophic mistake. To live the remainder of my life in L.A. would mean (in the words of Racine's Le songe d'Athalie), C'était pendant l'horreur d'une profonde nuit. "It was during the horror of a profound night," or so I … Continue reading What’s going on?
I delivered a sermon at RUF UCLA at the kind invitation of Rev. Matthew Trexler. I chose to write about the (not very often discussed) scene in Luke 4 when Jesus visited the synagogue of his youth in Nazareth to deliver a message. I ask whether or not it has any relevance for our lives today. … Continue reading Sermon: Jesus, the Guest Pastor
C.S. Lewis narrates the psychology of self-deception in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He presents an ambiguous anthropology that is distinctly non-Augustinian, where deviance and wickedness are divorced from inherent evil: “You mustn’t think that even now Edmund was quite so bad that he actually wanted his brother and sisters to be turned into … Continue reading The Eschatology of Turkish Delight
German Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, killed by Nazis shortly before the liberation of his concentration camp, wrote these words in what he considered to be his most precious work, his "Ethics," If it turns out, however, that these realities, myself and the world, are themselves embedded in a wholly other ultimate reality, namely, the reality of … Continue reading Christ the Ultimate Reality: On the Continuing Significance of Easter
