Paul Allen: Theology, Philosophy, Culture, Nature

Tuition fees and access to university

2012-02-01T09:42:00.001-05:00

Stephen Gordon in the Globe and Mail discusses some research on the link (or lack thereof) between fees and the decision to go to university. Enlightening reading, if counterintuitive.

On individualism and gnosticism

2011-12-23T09:33:00.000-05:00

My piece on things Christmas and Christian - in today's Gazette. Merry Christmas!

Leithart on "religious Freedom"

2011-12-02T08:37:00.000-05:00

noted here...

Sister Valsa John, R.I.P.

2011-11-18T08:41:00.002-05:00

From this morning's Globe

AUCC on CAUT

2011-11-16T14:15:00.007-05:00

Here is the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada's response to the Canadian Association of University Teachers' complaint against the revised statement of academic freedom that the AUCC issued a few weeks ago. The key set of statements comes in the middle of the AUCC statement: "Academic freedom is constrained by the professional standards of the relevant discipline and the

Dawkins and W.L. Craig

2011-10-20T13:17:00.000-04:00

Richard Dawkins has posted a flaming defense of his decision not to debate evangelical philosopher William Lane Craig. The nature of this non-debate is very readily summed up: Dawkins badly needs the crazy biblical interpretations of a fundamentalist approach to scripture in order to look good. This is not the first time that doctrinaire atheists and one-sided evangelicals "needed each other"

My next book

2011-10-19T15:48:00.000-04:00

is in the T &T Clark catalog (p. 44) . Meanwhile, bibliography and footnote format beckon (long sigh)...

Canadian Universities at a tipping point

2011-10-12T17:53:00.000-04:00

of credibility. In undergrad education, according to the Globe. The emphasis on research, which has been the drum pounded ad nauseam for the past ten years is starting to look more problematic than ever.

c/o Greece

2011-09-28T08:32:00.001-04:00

We now know that an independent Quebec really was and is impossible.

Stay in school (university)

2011-09-22T19:28:00.001-04:00

Says a study of the 'great recession' in the U.S. Similarities for Canada no doubt hold to a large degree (ahem, degree).

C.K. Barrett, 1917-2011

2011-09-10T10:47:00.000-04:00

the Telegraph's obit

Mary Beard is so thoughtful

2011-09-07T12:41:00.002-04:00

And on a subject fraught with trouble.

Monbiot on Academic Publishing

2011-09-05T15:46:00.000-04:00

Very Interesting!

Secular Gnosticism and the NY Times

2011-09-05T15:12:00.002-04:00

Nice piece by Francis Beckwith here.

The Other Blog I write for

2011-09-05T15:11:00.001-04:00

Items and topics more relevant to the Catholic church and the Archdiocese of Montreal, which sponsors the blog, Fides publica. I will keep my own personal blog here though, focusing from time to time on topics more technically theological, philosophical and academically oriented.

right on da money Part II

2011-08-22T09:57:00.000-04:00

Don't turn the universities into job training units. say it loud, say it clear.....

right on da money

2011-08-17T15:24:00.000-04:00

Ray Pennings: on faith and the (sports) media, here.

Re-moralising the university

2011-08-09T19:56:00.000-04:00

Good article on corrupted science, here.

Doubting Thomases

2011-07-14T10:03:00.001-04:00

Doubt and faith are often found together, and rightly so. Arguably, you can't have faith (as opposed to certainty) without the acknowledgement of doubt on similar issues on which you have faith. But when doubt takes over, one has to wonder what is going on. Into this very situation comes a movement known as analytic theology. Here is a paper on the whole phenomenon of analtyic theology by

'I will not kowtow'

2011-06-23T17:48:00.002-04:00

Here's the kind of backbencher we need in Canada!

The Corporatization of the University

2011-06-07T12:53:00.001-04:00

In a highly relevant NYT column, Stanley Fish lays out the problems with contemporary university governance, including the effects of turning the university into a branch plant of the corporation. In a reference to another essay on said topic (in the context of a serious dispute over the state of affairs at a university in Idaho, he cites the following: In an essay entitled “Inextricably Linked:

And the Michael Ramsey Prize goes to...

2011-05-28T12:21:00.000-04:00

David B. Hart. For his book Atheist Delusions.... Fantastic.

Children of Immigrants fear displaying religion

2011-05-28T12:06:00.001-04:00

Peter Beyer's Latest Study. Reported today in the NP

Dan Brown-esque un- theology

2011-05-17T22:34:00.003-04:00

I sometimes get asked what I thought of Dan Brown's books. I typically feel a mixture of remorse (for ignoring the entire corpus of Dan Brown) and relief (...for ignoring said corpus of pulp fiction!) as well. My wife read The Da Vinci Code, and promptly let me know that the writing was so bad, I shouldn't bother to read it. On the other hand, there are those who take advantage of the large

Rowan Williams on K + W

2011-04-28T18:45:00.002-04:00

Well said, your grace.

David Brooks

2011-04-23T13:41:00.003-04:00

channels the Augustinian inside him...

Historical Theology OR History as Theology

2011-04-11T10:33:00.008-04:00

An insightful piece from "Andrew" at memoria dei on the identity problem facing many div schools: when is Historical theology just historical and why is that a problem? When does Historical theology become a field with arguments like that of systematic theology, and what does that mean? Toward the bottom comes this summary: a study which interprets faithfully something of the past is a good

Medieval Wisdom for Modern Universities

2011-04-10T12:08:00.000-04:00

A great article by Matthew Milliner, here.

The Problem with Democracy in Canada

2011-04-04T13:46:00.000-04:00

Is that there is less and less of it - actual real democracy working in neighborhoods and ridings. So says Fr. Raymond deSouza in the National Post. Wonder whether the editorialists of that paper or any other newspaper think this is important?

On Syria.

2011-03-24T16:40:00.002-04:00

Thinking waaaaay outside the box!

On religious freedom in Europe

2011-03-19T11:12:00.000-04:00

There's good news and some bad news..

Congratulations Mr. Berry

2011-03-10T13:26:00.001-05:00

On your new Humanities medal.

Real Threats to Academic Feedom

2011-03-02T20:54:00.000-05:00

As opposed to fictitious threats to academic feedom, as noted in this CHE article.

Book Note: God's Century

2011-03-02T16:58:00.000-05:00

A forthcoming book titled God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics is due out this month. A must read by the sounds of it at the Mirror of Justice blog.

On CAUT and Academic Freedom

2011-02-18T09:51:00.001-05:00

As you may know, I've been busy these past few weeks - along with a growing number of Canadian faculty - fending off the Canadian Association of University Teachers or CAUT. Our efforts are catalogued here, in a statement of petition requesting CAUT to cease and desist in its investigations and castigations of Christian colleges and universities which require faith statements as a condition of

The Deactivated Bible

2011-01-22T13:37:00.001-05:00

Adam Kotsko has a rather brilliant yet brief take on our problem with the contemporary guild known as biblical studies. Here is a snippet from one of Adam's responses to the comments after the blog entry: The practical effect of “disqualifying” all historical/traditional uses of the Bible does, however, seem to me to be following a basically “Protestant” impulse of seeking to assess

Snippets: Latest Reading

2011-01-18T13:03:00.000-05:00

1. Insightful critique of Stanley Fish and the "ideal" of the universities' Enlightenment quest for knowledge. 2.Chris Wilson, at Slate, on "Jesus of Wikipedia" OR why you should never rely on wikipedia. Note the verb I use here: 'rely'. 3. Marilynne Robinson on theology, culture and writing.

This is not just a British crisis

2011-01-01T23:10:00.003-05:00

Grade inflation ... it's everywhere.

Pre-Christmas Reading

2010-12-22T09:02:00.000-05:00

Here are some things I've been looking at recently: 1) David Brooks intuits communitarianism in a Jewish paradigm - very good - here 2) One and a half cheers for "Two Cheers for Nature" an article by David Barash - here (He makes a number of category mistakes himself; for instance by confusing the Catholic natural law view as equivealent to the nature is good claim...) 3) A mistitled but

Academic Freedom Turns to Religious Persecution

2010-12-03T20:31:00.001-05:00

It's quite the op-ed title (by Peter Stockland of the Cardus Centre, printed in the Vancouver Sun, copied here) but it's pretty accurate insofar as the campaign launched by the Canadian Association of University Teachers is concerned. This organization is a faculty union that is known for its griping and whinging more than anything else. In recent months, it has moved against small religiously

Universities and Liberal Education

2010-11-27T17:30:00.002-05:00

Universities really are coming up for more discussion in the media for all sorts of reasons, not so much in Canada, but especially in the U.K. because of governement funding cutbacks which will have an impact that will affect most members of a generation. The recent decision by SUNY Albany to chop some of its humanities programmes, notably in the languages, has also made waves. It strikes many as

A Few Good Articles

2010-11-22T09:29:00.001-05:00

1) Starting With One about Alastair MacIntyre in Prospect magazine 2) Continuing with a Patrick Deneen article on the Humanities, Science and the Universities. 3) And a good rendition of some of the themes present in Charles Taylor's A Secular Age by the man himself

Here yea: Secularism versus Demography

2010-11-21T14:35:00.002-05:00

Who Will Win? Not the secularists, according to recent research as described in this fascinating thinkpiece...

Milbank, Hauerwas and Bretherington

2010-11-17T15:42:00.000-05:00

All together via mp3 podcast, from London, here. HT: FT!

The Media on the Pope

2010-11-09T22:25:00.002-05:00

It never ends. Mollie does Pope who does Spain. c/o getreligion

Spotty Reading in a busy term

2010-11-08T19:25:00.001-05:00

My blogging has slowed to a crawl, due to teaching, administration and the rest of it... But, here are some things I've spotted lately - of possible interest: 1. Conservatives should fear climate change. 2. William Carroll, who has taught at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, comments on Stephen Hawking's rambling speculations from several weeks ago - on creation and Big Bang cosmology, and the

On Wendell Berry

2010-10-15T09:11:00.001-04:00

Here - a perspective by Russell A. Fox on one of the great environmentalists of our time. Berry is indispensable; I used one of his shorter books - Life is A Miracle once in a course. The book is essentially a response to Edward Wilson's Consilience, an empiricist attempt to claim that ethics is a branch of human biology. The students (at least those who did the reading) really caught on to the

Cross and Context: Douglas Hall

2010-10-12T13:46:00.001-04:00

Just noticed this piece from several weeks ago in Christian Century from Douglas John Hall, one of Canada's premiere Protestant theologians, now retired from McGill University. Nothing controversial from this doyen of liberal protestantism, yet there is a nod to theology as a counter-cultural force. Instance this: What then is the mission of a church that can no longer count on its favored

Cut from the Same Augustinian Cloth: Benedict XVI and Rowan Williams

2010-09-15T13:23:00.001-04:00

Oh, what a treat is this article here - in this week's Tablet, a British, lay Catholic magazine. It comes from Rupert Shortt whose biography of Williams has won rave reviews and who also has a biography of Benedict XVI published in 2006. Here are two compelling snipets on what each church leader demonstrates about their mutual dependence on Augustine and more. "Rowan Williams may represent a

Hey students! Hard work yields success

2010-09-14T12:41:00.001-04:00

This time of year, faculty members adopt tactics both subtle and not-so-subtle to implore students to set aside the gadgets and crack open the books. And, yes, it is true that hard work can (and does) yield academic success, but for reasons that are largely cultural, hard work has become feared and praises of hard work are deemed politically incorrect. Two articles spotted today seem to indicate

Religious Naturalism Against Undergraduate Atheism

2010-09-11T11:59:00.002-04:00

In this fascinating review of two books by religious naturalists, John Cottingham takes on what is termed the undergraduate atheism of the Ditchkins crowd (Dawkins, Hitchens et al) and the responses of religious naturalist Mark Johnston and the French writer André Comte-Sponville. It's a brilliant review, but the books sound brilliant in their own ways too, especially Johnston's, since he

Reviewing Hauerwas

2010-09-04T11:07:00.002-04:00

I've heard several people laud Stanley Hauerwas's memoir, Hannah's Child. Here is a review by Martin Copenhaver in Christian Century that summarizes and evaluates the book in a fair and insightful way. Excerpts from the review: As he writes elsewhere in the memoir, he believes that "wherever Christians exist they are constituted by words and actions that should—but may not—make their lives

The Great University Debate Has Begun

2010-09-04T10:46:00.000-04:00

Well, at least south of the border. There are good reaons to hold this debate in Canada too, except that Canadians are a lot more reticent to debate most things. We are complacent if nothing else.... Here, read Camille Paglia's praise of trades, in which she also advocates core curricula in colleges and universities, an idea that couldn't arrive fast enough in the increasingly fragmented and

William Cavanaugh on Hitchens

2010-09-03T12:29:00.001-04:00

Whew, what a devastating critique of Christopher Hitchens this is. In politics, this kind of writing would be called a 'gotcha'. Cavanaugh (St. Thomas Univ., Minneapolis) takes apart Hitchens' argument that religion is inherently violent- in an Australian Broadcasting essay. Completely demolishes the argument that is. Excerpt: Totalitarianism aims at human perfection, which is essentially a

Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini: Round 2

2010-08-31T09:42:00.002-04:00

I recently blogged a LRB review of a new book by these two titled What Darwin Got Wrong Here is another review, equally interesting from the redoubtable Simon Conway-Morris. Snippet: Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini declare their secular credentials and are adamant that God, like Mother Nature and the Tooth Fairy, is a dispensable fantasy. But suppose they are correct in arguing that there really

On Tenure: Thinking Outside the Box

2010-08-21T13:38:00.002-04:00

Here is a good article on tenure, from which the following snippet stands out on incentives for joining the ranks of academe:the appeal of job security may be overrated. Tenure may be an added incentive, but it's almost never a deal maker. "All sorts of brilliant people want to be members of academe," says Trower. "I don't think it's because of tenure. It's because of the work." The life of the

Gavin D'Costa on a Theology of Religions

2010-08-16T11:12:00.004-04:00

View here

This past week's Web Reading

2010-08-12T13:17:00.004-04:00

1. On Catholic universities and academic life. From this post, one of an increasing number of pointed jabs at the narrowing of academic life. A topic that is set to explode soon onto the front pages of the western press if another economic crisis precipitates a funding crunch...:The hyper-specialization of knowledge is one of the characteristics of the modern university, which results both in the

Money taketh happiness away!

2010-08-11T16:44:00.003-04:00

From the abstract of a paper available here:having access to the best things in life may actually undercut people’s ability to reap enjoyment from life’s small pleasures.I love the title: "Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away"...

Plagiarism is a Big Moral Deal

2010-08-10T14:41:00.005-04:00

But not according to Stanley Fish today in a NYT post titled "Plagiarism is Not a Big Moral Deal". Now a lot depends on Fish's use of the words "big" and "moral".First, on the claim that plagiarism is an issue in the small world of academia. Fish notes:The concept of plagiarism, however, is learned in more specialized contexts of practice entered into only by a few; it’s hard to get from the

Dr. Tali Argov

2010-08-02T14:34:00.003-04:00

This is the kind of unfortunate event that one would expect to see more of in the near future, given the aggressive secularism that is sweeping through various educational and governmental agencies in a number of western countries.In this instance, a Jewish academic at Oxford converts to Christianity and is effectively shunned by her colleagues. Note the circumstances of this story do not tell a

Christopher Hitchens, Man of Faith

2010-07-26T13:53:00.002-04:00

So says a friend of his, in the NYRB. Read to the end to see what kind of faith Ian Buruma is referring to. After years of enjoying his pugnacious and rhetorically breathtaking articles in the Atlantic and elsewhere (prior to his atheist book anyway), this evaluation of "Hitch" is a most revealing read.

LRB Review of Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini

2010-07-26T09:26:00.004-04:00

This review by Peter Godrey-Smith in the LRB of this book, 'What Darwin Got Wrong' is very concise and revealing of the serious philosophical dispute at the heart of contemporary interpretations of Darwinism. Scroll down for Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini's brief reposte. While my own sympathies are with Fodor and P-P based only on a couple of other articles (I have not read this book under

Fish fun

2010-06-30T09:24:00.003-04:00

Stanley Fish is often a riot. Here, in the NY Times the other day, he is provocative and right on - discussing student evaluations of professors. Now, there is in my view, an important role for student evaluations, but as one commentator says in response to Fish, "the popular is not necessarily the good." Popular teachers are not necessarily the best, which (again to qualify what needs qualifying

Sarah Coakley Symposium

2010-06-30T02:43:00.004-04:00

Here is an interesting list of abstracts for an Australian symposium dedicated to the thought of Sarah Coakley. I heard Sarah speak in Oxford on the science of cooperation and the theology of Incarnation a few weeks ago, and it was a tour de force, the moreso given its theological locus. She will also give the Gifford lectures in 2011.

What Happened to B XVI?

2010-06-17T16:41:00.002-04:00

Wonder what happened to the catholic church sex abuse scandal in the media? Well, you're not alone, and getreligion's got some interesting analysis with links to more here.Short excerpt:I think things died down because these reports tried to bring Benedict down. And when it didn’t work, folks lost interest.Yup, that about sums it up. But read the last line of the article - that is the tragic part

Summer Reading

2010-06-16T05:51:00.003-04:00

Not my summer reading, but the summer reading of college and university students. In the U.S., a large number of post-secondary educational institutions mandate summer reading for those students who have been accepted into various programmes. This sounds like a great idea. And it is - except that the range of reading prescribed is disturbingly myopic.A report from the U.S. National Association of

The Big Shaggy

2010-06-09T05:03:00.005-04:00

It's a terrible moniker, but it is nonetheless the term du jour in a wonderful column by David Brooks on the need, more than ever, for a humanities education. A most "useful" kind of education to have!Here is my favorite part of what he has to say, because it touches on the ability to think analogously. Making good analogies is an effect of a creative, educated mind. Thinking analogously is not

Upcoming Seminar

2010-04-20T09:02:00.002-04:00

I will be giving a lecture at one of the seminars of the University of Oxford's Ian Ramsey Centre. Below is the abstract. Look forward to seeing you if you're in the UK, perhaps if you're stuck here for lack of air transport...