Clarion

Religious Particularity & the Cultural Canopy – Beyond Multiculturalism – David Goa w/ Brad Jersak

May 1, 2022 |

The words of Jesus Christ, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes unto the Father except by me” frame the backdrop for this conversation on particularity and universals.

The Jewish patrimony accents the gift of particularity. Christianity, like Islam and Buddhism, treasures its revelation and sees its significance for all times and places, a “universal” insight.

In modern liberal democratic societies the particularity of cultural gifts and the civil striving for universal rights and responsibilities is often confused and entangled.

David Goa and Brad Jerak, in conversation, walk into the thickness of religious particularity and think about the importance of the civil canopy of “universals.” The danger of absolutes and the importance of holding with care our ultimate concerns are tempered with and through friendship.   

Canada’s Caesar — by Brad Jersak

Sep 30, 2010 |

Canada’s Caesar is Tolerance
Which means convictions can be dangerous.
We are very tolerant of everyone but totally intolerant of the intolerant.
Which is to say, of Evangelicals …
who are often seen and experienced as intolerant,
who mistakenly believe they must take a stand against the evils of tolerance.
And our most powerful means of punishing the intolerant is contempt.

Truth, Violence and Love — by Brian Zahnd

Sep 30, 2010 |

What is truth? This was Pilate’s famous ironic question of Christ. A short time later—after Jesus had been scourged and was now standing before Pilate wearing a crown of thorns—Pilate answered his own question when he said to Jesus, “Do you not know that I have power...