thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb Here’s an article relevant to recent comments on liturgy: Eamon Duffy on the abolition of fasts post-Vatican II. The basic point is that man is not wholly determined by thoughts divorced from externals. Specific practices help constitute religion even when the connection to doctrine is fairly loose. Some notable points in the article:
Found on the web:
I got another note from my Finnish correspondent, who continues to express some dissatisfaction with conservatism (he is specially concerned with Russell Kirk). As in the past (here and here) his questions seemed worth editing and passing on, together with my attempts to answer them:
… More ...Finnish Correspondent: Nothing changes. When communism failed,
More odds and ends:
Current events update:
In comments on a recent entry, David Sucher was quite skeptical that either modernist urban design or its contrary has anything to do with religion or general political divides like liberalism and conservatism. He also wanted to know just what I meant by “modernist urban design.” Since the issues are interesting, my views need … More ...
Another poll that looks into the red state/blue state divide in American politics that we’ve discussed before: Americans deeply split over politics. The main conclusion is that
… More ...“married and single voters live not on different planets, but different solar systems, when it comes to their politics and values … Republicans have a problem
Like most right-wingers I’m rather down on George W. Bush, but I did find the Bush Conspiracy Theory Generator rather amusing.
Judging by what people who aren’t Abe Foxman have taken away from Mel Gibson’s new movie, it seems to me it would better serve peace and understanding if Foxman would drop his campaign against The Passion of the Christ. The events surrounding the death of Christ are central to Christianity. To the extent the … More ...
In his book The Free Press, recently republished, Hilaire Belloc gives a memorable explanation why the mass media make people stupid:
… More ...Instead of an organic impression formed at leisure in the comparison of many human sources, the reader obtains a mechanical one. At the same moment myriads of other men receive the same