What’s All This About?

I’m something of a philosopher and theologian – my general areas of interest in philosophy are ethics, logic, language and epistemology. Wittgenstein I find fascinating.  Theologically, my interests are pretty broad – from ancient Hebrew thought to early Christian to the medieval Scholastics to the Reformation to the present. I like Barth, Wright, Lewis, the Early Church Fathers, Calvin, Luther, Anselm, Aquinas, Wolterstorff, Pascal , Bonhoeffer, Augustine, Heschel, Wesley, Jewish Theology, Eastern Orthodox theology – if it’s theological, chances are I like it. I have a good handle on the doctrine of justification – I suppose I’d have to say that’s my strong point.

Theology proper begins in worship, however. One must worship God before one can know Him – this is an underlying presupposition I hold. I will generally refrain from abstract discoursing about God in a philosophical sense – though it’s been known to happen, for better or for worse. I don’t consider God an object to be proved though good arguments can point one to God. The difference between the god of the philosophers and the God of Israel is a simple one: the god of philosophy is that which is – the God of Israel is He Who Is.

I’m also an aspiring literary critic/theorist. C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Cormac McCarthy, Hemingway, Milton, Dostoevsky and Faulkner are my boys. I find Russian literary theory/philosophy to be very interesting. I love medieval literature and am an amateur Tolkien scholar.

There will be a fair amount of quoted/non-original material here. This is not a lack of independent thought – it is the interaction with the living, breathing Christian tradition. It’s part of the Communion of Saints – life with the Church past, present and future. Christianity does not and cannot exist as a vacuum – those who have gone before us in the Church we cherish and love. My own thoughts and commentary on Scripture, theological/philosophical issues and various thinkers are just a few tiny drops in the vast stream of Christian thought, but I count myself as privileged to write in that tradition.

I also like history – I generally know the history of whatever I’m talking about. I think that’s important.

St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church and one of the most brilliant thinkers who has ever lived, writer of the one of the greatest pieces of intellectual literature in history, the Summa Theologica, declared that all his writings were straw after being given a vision of the glory of God. I can only echo his sentiment – my hope, however, is that my few pieces of straw help someone somewhere see something of the God I have come to know and love.

This blog is meant to be a discourse – comments, challenges, refutations and thoughts are welcome on every post and topic so long as they remain respectful. The ideas and theology here are an ongoing project, not definite statements of dogma.

And that’s all, folks.