Fear and Trembling! Jon Stewart to lecture on Kierkegaard!

No, not that Jon Stewart. But check it out anyway if you'll be in or near the Bay Area on October 21. Drop by the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology for what promises to be an intellectually stimulating lecture. You don't have to be a philosopher to enjoy this!

"Kierkegaard and Hegel on Faith and Knowledge"
When: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 7:00 pm
Where: Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, California

One of Kierkegaard's main objections to Hegel's philosophy is that it misunderstands the nature of religion by placing it on a par with various forms of scholarship and knowing. Through his pseudonymous authors, Kierkegaard stubbornly insists that faith is fundamentally different from knowledge. How would Hegel respond to Kierkegaard's objection? I wish to argue that Hegel would find Kierkegaard's conception of faith to be a pure formalism with no determinate content.For this reason, it cannot be properly designated as Christian faith since it has no content by which it can be distinguished from the faith of other religions.

Where Are the Grownups at the Christina School District?

(Photo: FNC)

If this story doesn't aggravate you, nothing will. A pint-sized cub scout has been suspended for bringing a “weapon” to school. And the rocket scientists who are running the school district whose boundaries this child has the misfortune to reside within have sentenced the little guy to reform school because of what they deem to have been a "level three offense." Seriously.

Six-year-old Zachary Christie was so excited to become a Cub Scout that he brought his camping utensil to school. The tool serves as a spoon, a fork and a knife, and Zachary wanted to use it at lunch.

What Zachary didn't know was that the gizmo violated his school's zero-tolerance policy on weapons. And now the Christina School District in Newark, Del., has suspended the first grader and ordered him to attend the district's reform school for 45 days.

Zachary's parents insist their son did not intend to hurt anyone, and they are fighting to overturn the ruling. . . . (source) (see also)

Archbishop Chaput on the Struggle Between "Caesar" and Belmont Abbey College

Here is an important section of Archbishop Charles J. Chaput's extraordinary address to the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College "Envoy of the Year" award banquet last Thursday, October 8th, in Charlotte. I found his words that evening to be prophetic and inspiring.

One of the Archbishop's insights was this gem of an aphorism:

"If we stand up to evil, we may lose. If we don't stand up to evil, we will lose."

" . . . Today the bigots we face are different. Caesar wears a different suit. He has great media handlers. He bullies religion while he claims to respect it. He talks piously about the law and equality and tolerance and fairness. But he still confuses himself with God -- and he still violates the rights of Catholic believers and institutions by intruding himself where he has no right to be.

"It‟s one of the great ironies of the moment that tiny Belmont Abbey would have the courage to challenge Caesar over its right to be faithfully Catholic in its policies, while so many other American Catholics seem eager to give Caesar honors. But God is a God of ironies, as the Philistines discovered, among others.

"One of the deepest truths of the human predicament is this: If you stand up to evil, you may lose. But if you don’t stand up, you will lose. Belmont Abbey [College], to its very great credit, has the character to stand up and defend its right to be Catholic. The Becket Fund stands with it. Patrick Madrid and the Envoy Institute have been standing up for the Catholic faith for many years.

"We have the duty to support all of them with our prayers, our financial resources and pressure on our public officials to stop today‟s government interference with the identity and policies of faithful Catholic institutions. . . . (complete text of speech)