Mystery and Objectivity

That is the title of an interview World Magazine's Marvin Olasky did with Stanley Fish in a recent issue. I stumbled on Mr. Fish's fine columns in the New York Times a few years ago, and have often read them--with great pleasure (as a writer, he is superb) and to my benefit in understanding what some of the brightest and more thoughtful minds are contemplating. So I was happy to see Olasky interview him.

Fish understands, from his reading of Augustine and John Milton, what many Christians do not, alas: that much (if not all) sin is at heart a violation of the first commandment; that is, whenever we try to find life in anything but God (and worshiping is in one sense a seeking after life), we tend instead toward death. I hope you will read the interview.

Michael Jackson

I don't know about you, but I am blown away by the worldwide tribute Michael Jackson has received since his death yesterday. He was surely given great common-grace gifts in music and dance. But his story, like that of most such gifted people, tended toward, and ended in, tragedy. What do you think?

"The Devil Votes Christian Values"

There's a provocative sermon title for you! A sermon by a Southern Baptist to boot. Read about it, and find a link to it, here.

Found in a Strange Place

Sometimes books and articles that critique faith in science, rationalism, etc. appear in unusual places. Here is a book review from Stanley Fish, on a book that debunks the present-day aggressive atheism of Hitchens and Dawkins. If you are even somehat following our cultural moment on this one, it is well worth reading--and you may be a little surpised. (Even Stanley Fish--who is not, to my knowledge, anywhere close to being a Christian--regards Hitchens and Dawkins as "school-yard atheists.")