The limits of the language of wrath – Brad Jersak
For the past week I’ve been marinating in Kevin Miller’s Huffington Post article, “Why We Need the Language of Hell.” That bit of commentary, penned by the director of the, Hellbound? Documentary, may be the most poignant summary of humanity’s perennial need for wrath...
Why we need the language of hell – Kevin Miller
James Eagan Holmes allegedly slaughters 12 people at a movie theater in Colorado. Survivor Stephanie Davies describes the event: "We were laying there, literally in the mouth of hell." Anders Behring Breivik kills 69 people at a summer camp in Norway. Prime...
Is Universalism the New Annihilationism? by Kevin Miller
Thanks to a prod from Graham Ware, I’m currently reading Clark. H. Pinnock’s excellent essay The Destruction of the Finally Impenitent. Published in 1990, Pinnock’s essay critiques the “traditional” doctrine of hell as eternal torment for the wicked and argues for the...
The Journey to the East by Herman Hesse (1956) – Ron Dart
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) was one of the most conscious spiritual seekers in his time and one of the finest and most consistent European doves in an age of two world wars and an ethos of overt hawkishness and militarism. Hesse fled Germany to Switzerland because of his...
Wrath and Love as Divine Consent by Brad Jersak
“God does no violence to secondary causes in the accomplishment of his ends.”[1] In this article, I will attempt to creatively apply a theology of the Cross or ‘divine consent’ towards a metaphorical reading of wrath back into those Scriptures that so repulse those...
Review of Brad Jersak’s ‘George P. Grant: Minerva’s Snowy Owl,’ by Ron Dart
Review of Brad Jersak, George P. Grant: Minerva’s Snowy Owl: Essays in Political Theology (FWP, 2012). Only when the dusk starts to fall does the owl of Minerva spread its wings and fly Hegel George Grant is, without much doubt, one of Canada’s...
September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden
September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our...
Some personal Meditations on Aboriginal Day (June), and July first, 2012. Henk Smidstra
Two hundred years ago, on June 1, 1812, United States President, James Madison, declared war on England and its North American Colonies .Now from a 200 year old perspective, 2012 is going to be a reflective and patriotic year in Canada as it goes down memory lane to...
Oh Mercy! by Brian Zahnd
Oh Mercy Posted: 12 Jul 2012 06:57 PM PDT OH MERCYby Brian Zahnd Be perfect as your Father is perfect. —Jesus (Matthew 5:48) Be merciful as your Father is merciful. —Jesus (Luke 6:36) Let’s keep this short...
A European Pilgrimage: Erasmus, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Hesse by Ron Dart
There are moments in history when much hinges on decisions made by leaders and visionaries (and those who dutifully follow them). Inevitably, we all live with the consequences, for good or ill, of those who have preceded us. The early decades of the 16th century was a...