Posts Tagged ‘sin’

I messed up.  A few years back, I read all the novels and short stories in the Modern Library edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writings, except the Scarlet Letter. I had read it as a young boy—too early, I will admit, since I had to ask my mother what the letter A was all about.  Still, I reasoned that I knew the plot; so, why read the book again?  Dumb, even dumber.  There is more to a great novel than just knowing the events of the plot.  On my second reading, I was profoundly moved.  The Scarlet Letter is a great novel about human sin, the guilt that it causes, and the costly redemption for the sinner and those affected by the sin that comes from confession. 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 »

Whether Bernie Sanders is even nominated for President by the Democratic Party, let alone wins the presidency, is a moot point.  The fact that a serious contender for the presidency has identified himself as a socialist marks a turning point in American politics.  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 »

            One of the major mistakes in the history of philosophy and theology is to define man primarily as a being consisting of compartments such as reason, will and desires.  This error leaves us with the pleasing illusion that our reason can grasp objective truth with some effort on our part to free it from our desires.  The Bible will have none of this, Read the rest of this entry »