http://percaritatem.com Non intratur in veritatem nisi per caritatem. St. Augustine Fri, 16 May 2008 19:45:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In the final section of Billings' book, Calvin, Participation, and the Gift:  The Activity of Believers in Union with Christ, he suggests various ways in which Calvin's theology of participation might speak into our current theological milieu. While Calvin's theology of participation is wide-ranging, it is distinctive in relation to contemporary ... http://percaritatem.com/2008/05/16/billings-on-the-richness-of-calvins-theology-of-participation/ The following is taken from a transcription of a lecture given by Alvin Plantinga.  I have at times summarized his points, but for the most part the content is his.  I have also uploaded the full transcription, which you can obtain here.  If you want to hear the lecture for ... http://percaritatem.com/2008/05/13/plantinga-on-the-irrationality-of-belief-in-the-conjunction-of-naturalism-and-evolution/ My husband and I recently watched an excellent movie by Khaled Hosseini entitled, "The Kite Runner," about which my husband gives his reflections here.  If you have a soft spot for orphans (as we do) and love films that speak to issues of friendship, loyalty, the value of human beings, and the possibilities of the transforming ... http://percaritatem.com/2008/05/12/a-movie-that-will-move-you-kite-runner/ What was the only chapter topic never altered in the many revisions of John Calvin's Institutes?  Was it predestination?  No.  Was it his discussion of human depravity in our postlapsarian state?  Wrong again.  It was his discussion of prayer, which is also the longest chapter in the Institutes.  As Billings ... http://percaritatem.com/2008/05/09/the-hidden-philosophy-not-found-in-syllogisms/ http://percaritatem.com/2008/05/07/summer-study-at-st-johns-episcopal-church-st-augustines-confessions/ Is interpretation primarily about a relation between the reader and the subjective intentions of the author?  Might it be the case that the hermeneutical method that E.D. Hirsch espouses in his book, Validity in Interpretation, lands us right back into the egocentric predicament, as the sole goal of interpretation becomes ... http://percaritatem.com/2008/05/05/part-i-a-gadamarian-critique-of-hirschs-meaningsignificance-distinction/   [See part IV].  This is my concluding post on the "Phenomenological Explorations of Music" series. Having examined the calculated aspects of jazz improvisation, as well as highlighting the some of the ways in which improvisation and places of indeterminacy emerge and exist in classical music, I now turn to discuss (by way ... http://percaritatem.com/2008/04/30/part-v-phenomenological-explorations-of-music/ Dr. Joel Garver offers a helpful analysis and commentary on the recently released WTS documents in relation to the suspension of Dr. Peter Enns.   If you are following this situation, Joel's post is worth reading, as are the WTS documents. http://percaritatem.com/2008/04/28/sacra-doctrina-and-the-newly-released-wts-documents/ I am currently reading via interlibrary loan, J. Todd Billings' new book, Calvin, Participation, and the Gift (Oxford Univ. Press, 2008).  Although I haven't finished the book yet, what I have read up to this point (about 100 pages) is excellent!  Billings has done a great service to Calvin scholarship, ... http://percaritatem.com/2008/04/25/calvin-participation-and-the-gift/ My beautiful, brilliant and extremely delightful daughter, Ashley, has recently been showing signs of a budding philosopher (as well as a budding ballerina, a budding botanist, and a budding comedian).  Below are some of the more philosophical comments and inquiries that she has posed recently: (1) Application of the principle of non-contradiction. How ... http://percaritatem.com/2008/04/23/philosophical-musings-of-a-three-year-old/