Posts Tagged ‘Paul’

No one has said, or at least should have said, that aging is easy. Read the rest of this entry »

The theme of hope has been in the news recently.  In an interview outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama, lamenting what in her view is the loss of hope, said, “Hope is necessary.  It’s a necessary concept.”  Incoming President Donald Trump responded, “I’m telling you, we have tremendous hope.  And we have a tremendous promise and tremendous potential.”

Although both political figures rightly emphasize the importance of hope, they are terribly misguided about its nature.  The Christmas story in the Gospels reveals the true nature of hope and its power. Read the rest of this entry »

The advantage of such a distressing election year is that it gives us the opportunity for serious reflection.  Realizing that our political system has reached a crisis point, we need to step back from the so-called debates over single issues and examine fundamental political questions.  In this essay I propose to define the nature of government and then demonstrate the necessary consequences of that nature to political liberty. Read the rest of this entry »

As far back as Irenaeus of Lyon (AD 120-202) and probably earlier, Christians have drawn parallels between the sin of man having come by means of eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and salvation being accomplished on the cross of Christ.[1]  Our two American Christmas poets tie in the tree of Genesis and the cross of Christ with the crib of the baby Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »

The ancient Greeks tragedies saw all of man’s efforts overruled by cruel and blind fate.  Karl Marx said man was subject to economic determinism.  B.F. Skinner contended that human behavior was determined by genetics and environment.  For atheistic existentialists, like Sartre, the human condition is to be trapped in a meaningless universe from which there is no escape.   Both fairy tales and the Bible disagree. Read the rest of this entry »