In part two on “Overcoming Binaries in Comparative Literature,” I review Matthew Novenson’s recent book on the history of what he calls an “ancient Jewish political idiom.” Novenson’s The Grammar of Messianism seeks to complicate a binary logic that has predominated in scholarship on the word ‘messiah’ (from
If you have spoken to me recently, it is possible you heard me go on a tangent about early Christianity. About a year ago, I started a deep dive into New Testament studies, inspired by an epiphany I had while listening to a gospel reading in church (a topic for
Traditionally, for Christians, despair is a sin. It is regarded as faithlessness. Faith is a conviction of having hope, and despair is a conviction of having no hope. They are diametrically opposed. It is a binary. Faith or despair. And yet I stand before you today, a minister at a
I. He is revealing Donald Trump resonates with people because he says what is really on his mind. He says what a lot of people think but don't say. He is ignorant and disgusting, but he is revealing. What he says often reflects a great swath of public
There is a tendency in queer theory to lump all binaries under false consciousness. Binary thinking, so it goes, is inherently flawed. There is no either/or, there is only both/and. While I appreciate and practice the queer critique of binary logic, the absolutism of rejecting all binaries strikes
If socialism is going to be anything other than a pipe dream, socialists have to start experimenting with behavior that is out of character for our type. And no! I don’t mean "working within the system" or accepting "incremental change." — Rather, I think socialists need
There is rest for the wicked after all. Ozzy Osbourne died on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. He was 76. Ozzy was born John Michael Osbourne in Marston Green, a village near Birmingham, United Kingdom. He grew up in Aston, Birmingham, an area known at the time for bombed out buildings,
I wrote two posts this month, but one was too hopeless and the other was too hateful. Consequently, I am taking a break from writing for this blog, until I have something meaningful worth saying. Thanks for reading. Pray for me.
That's it. That's the post this week. Get out there and protest. The Trump administration is kidnapping innocent people, including US citizens, including children, and deporting them without due process. That is illegal, unconstitutional, and a violation of our human rights. And they are threatening protesters
St. Anselm famously defined God as "that than which nothing greater can be thought." He had set out to defend the existence of God by the use of reason alone, and arrived at a proof by way of definition. If it does not exist, then it is not
Here's a breakdown of my four posts from this month: * Non-Christian Thoughts (5/2/25) “I have grown exhausted by the totalizing hegemony of Christianity. Christianity has the world in its stranglehold. All over the planet, billions of people worship Jesus. And this has less to do
So if we say there is no afterlife, what then? I would venture to guess that most people hope, if not believe, that some heaven awaits us after we die. We live in a modern world, but even modernists struggle with the concept that this life is all there is,