Crony capitalism, croniest capitalism

I read this article over the weekend, and it is very illuminating, one of the best reflections on the structural problems we face in the ongoing financial crisis. The lack of obvious solutions to the problem of oligarchic capitalism suggests to me that the west is headed in a direction that Latin American societies have known for a long time. The rich grow richer, the poor, poorer.

The Pope and Africa

Yes, I know - everyone has been over and over this.... But is there a perspective or two that we haven't heard from?

These two articles are among the best I've seen: social, even left-wing liberals who want us to take Pope Benedict XVI very seriously:

1) Edward Green, the now famous Harvard medical researcher.

2) Michael Czerny, a Canadian Jesuit and former head of the Faith and Social Action Office here in Canada , and now Director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN).

Read and enjoy the calm, reasonable but not utterly defensive analysis, as opposed to the rest of the "commentary" out there.

Update: Here is a nuanced response to responses by Ross Douthat. Again, balanced and not defensive.

The Odd Passion of Bart Ehrman

Never heard of him? Think of Christopher Hitchens working in a Religious Studies department with a promotion agency working full time on his behalf, and that's more or less Ehrman. Well, here's an unbridled critique that is worth a good chuckle even if it could be more substantial.

Title & Abstract for May Conference

For this conference:

Pride, Envy and Human Nature: Beyond Darwinian Conservatism

Abstract:
This paper outlines a theological anthropology that responds to an evolutionary portrait of human nature in dialogue with Darwinian conservative moral theory and natural law theory. This paper outlines an approach with affinities to Darwinian conservatism, a contemporary political natural law theory. However, it offers a corrective to this and other moral theories which rely too readily on human desire instead of value. Through reference to the work of Pope, Porter and Lonergan, this paper claims that a theological interpretation of human nature is both a plausible and a necessary supplementary account. The acknowledgement of human sin, especially pride and envy, is the key connection between natural law theory and a theological anthropology. Sin is a theological category that responds to traditional and Darwinian natural law without being an imposition on evolutionary theory. Christian redemption is founded as a response to sin, mindful of the need to critically assess any natural law theory in the light of God’s revelation.

I'm finishing it up in April. Any comments?

The Lowest of the Low

In Journalism, that is... Canada's "national" newspaper, The Globe and Mail, went haywire the other day in a screed against Canada's Minister for Science and Technology, who apparently gave some vague indication or other that there is a problem with the theory of evolution. While he has since clarified his agreement with the theory (me: whew... good), the anti-religious 'journalism' that unleashed the predictable online torrent of atheist attacks was appalling. Despite his otherwise untrustworthy editorial line on a range of issues, this piece by David Asper, he of Canwest Corp., is absolutely bang on.

Stem Cells...

Time does not permit me to begin the necessary analysis of Obama's lifting of restrictions on U.S. government funding of embryonic stem cell research. This was inevitable for all the reasons that others have mentioned in the political press. But, I could not see any analysis in the tv / newspaper reports on the advances in adult stem cell research that have made embryonic stem cell research redundant, or at least overstated. The media coverage of the past few days appeared to overlook 5 years of exponentially more important advances in adult stem cell research. But maybe you saw analysis that did take this into consideration.

At any rate, here is Ross Douthat, America's most articulate young political conservative on the matter, in characteristically sharp style.

Understanding the recession. Take 2.

Can't resist Tom Friedman's post on the links between the recession and the ecological dimensions of its' causes. Read it yourself. It's not depressing, not panic driven and well done. It simply sums up what many of us have been noticing for years.

A must buy

I'm reviewing this book by Peter Harrison for a Canadian journal. It is clearly one of the most important books dealing with science and religion in recent years. Its argument is essentially a historical one: science did not emerge as an experimental activity conceived in opposition to Christianity. On the contrary: especially in England, science emerged as a bulwark enterprise against the growing sense of human falleness. Adam, the original human, is the figure who stands in contrast to the vicious, petty and prideful human condition. Primarily, this interpretation of theological anthropology arose within Protestantism, with few exceptions. In short, an excellent book, not despite the 740 footnotes.

3 Weeks too late

This story would have meant so much more had it happened and been reported 3 weeks ago. The Vatican's communications people and other curial officials got this one wrong, badly wrong.

Update: signs that sage advice was ignored - from the highest of levels...

Update 2: more indications (see Cardinal Lehmann & Rabbi Rosen's remarks) of the same...

Atheist re-thinking

I don't know what to make of this article. I think what prevents me from labeling it as insightful is its simplistic cause-and-effect logic. Though the willingness to acknowledge the good in Christian theology is refreshing.

So, according to this British journalist: Problem: African poverty
Solution: Christianity as utilitarian worldview bringing prosperity
//Cause: Protestant individualist work ethic . Effect: wealth. Hmmm...

What do you think?

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Who is the fairest of them all?
Whom should I pay attention to in order to stay ahead of the curve - Niebuhr or Planned parenthood? Augustine or Clinton? Plato or the briefing book on Canada that just landed on my desk?
Are you wondering what Obama's reading list consists in these days? Well, maybe not this week, since he had no time to read. But next week and the week after?
What will he do? To whom will he pay attention?
It's a bit like the economy... no one knows.
Could go in some of many directions...

Mes Aieux @ First Things

My piece on a Quebec folk group and their song, Degenerations, and its significance.

After Avarice

Comes faith. At least in New York, of all places!
I was waiting for this story to be written, and here it is.

Now, the Canadian Finance minister today announced that he expects the Canadian economy to shrink next year by 0.4%. Let's put that into perspective: the average economic growth in Canada over the past 15 years since the last recession has remained at ... what, a healthy 3% or so? Ok, let's say 2.5% per annum. That's a 37.5% increase in economic output since 1993, much of which is due to productivity gains c/o the internet.

This current projected 0.4% decline is barely going to put a dint on a decade and a half of production of goods and services, including the concomitant accumulation of wealth. So, let's ask a journalist to write the obvious story: the economic crisis is NOT what the media, in its frothing fervor, is making it out to be. Or, am I missing something?

Update, Jan. 23: 1) There has been a revision in the forecast for the percentage decline in GDP over the next few months, or actually, several revisions. The basic point of this post still holds however: if the economy were to shrink by an astonishing 5% in a few months, that is still a relatively small chunk of the GDP growth that we've experienced over the past decade and a half - we still need perspective on all the doom and gloom, no matter how gloomy it all sounds.

2) Check out this Canadian version of the Times' story, published Jan. 23. Seems Canadian news too often - and tediously - recycles the more exhilarating American story.

Wendell Berry & Herman Daly... almost live

Here is something a bit off the beaten track [for this blog]: the transcript from a panel discussion concerning agriculture and the support that could be provided for a different kind of rural economy, but with some gems about education, moral choices and all the other predicaments that attend the relationships between these things. Go to around pp. 13-14 for some really good chuckles... at the expense of certain economists I might add.

Monasticism and modernity

A short, pithy yet surprisingly sympathetic account of the Clear Creek Benedictine monastery in Oklahoma appears in the online Slate magazine recently. I'm not sold on the theological urgency of the Latin rite liturgy, to which this new monastic community takes a shining. Though aesthetically, I see the appeal straight away. And because of the aesthetic appeal, there are spiritual benefits that outweigh the benefits of the post Vatican II Catholic mass celebrated in the vernacular.

The intriguing reference in this article to groups of families uprooting themselves to go and live near the monastery is fairly instructive. With all the doom and gloom associated with the so-called economic "crisis" (Note: if you want to see what economic crisis really looks like, go visit the Gaza strip or a Lima, Peru shantytown), this development of a virtual mini-economy that is self-sufficient and centered on the manufacture of crafted goods is very important. What many people instinctively think of as an ideal way of life never-to-be realized is in fact very real, once the discipline of self-sacrifice and the limits of an agricultural (and therefore cyclical) way of life is embraced.