In chapter one of his book, The Challenge of Jesus:  Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is, written for a lay audience, N.T. Wright enumerates four reasons for the need to continue to wrestle with the historical question of Jesus.  His second reason for engaging in historical study of Jesus is, as he says, “out of [...]

In book IV.7, we encounter one among many of the powerful passages in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.  What takes place below is conversation between Alyosha Fyodovovich Karamazov and a poor peasant captain who was publically humiliated by Alyosha’s brother, Dmitri.  The captain’s son, Ilusha, a nine year-old schoolboy, had attacked Alyosha the previous day, hurling stones [...]

Once in a while, it’s nice to throw in a non-philosophical/theological post or two.  I was tagged by MM at Theology of the Body blog, so here’s my response to the quirk meme, which requires me to list six of my personal quirks and peculiar to me personal actions etc.
1.   I regularly drink Kroger brand [...]

Scotus stresses that the primary adequate object of our intellect is the transcendental concept of being, an imperfect and indeterminate concept, though a concept determinable to more perfect concepts. Here it seems Scotus’s modal distinction plays a crucial role. As Peter King explains,
[t]he modal distinction reflects a reality within a given intrinsic mode, and there [...]

At 10.14.21 Augustine turns to discuss emotions that are stored “in” memory.  Here his emphasis is that we can recall being sad and yet not feel sad in the process. The recollection of these emotions, then, is the notion, not the passion itself.  This shows that the faculty that is able to do this is [...]

As Augustine continues his discussion of memory, he investigates the “contents” of our memory, inquiring as to what exactly we find “in” our memory.  Perhaps the most obvious answer is memories of events and so forth that have happened in one’s past-historical recollections (e.g., I remember when I heard Ambrose preach; I remember when my [...]

I recently re-read book X of Augustine’s Confessions for a class that I am teaching this Fall.  Since it’s likely that I will have very little time to blog this Fall, I have decided to start a mini-series based on my summer study of Augustine and memory.
To set the context for book X, let’s do [...]