A Road Trip Through Evangelical America
SoMA (the Society of Mutual Autopsy): a Review of Religion & Culture, just published my review of Alexandra Pelosi's HBO documentary, Friends of God. You can read my thoughts on her work here.Q1 2007 Bookshelf
Posting a monthly book list is a PITA. I'm doing it on a quarterly basis instead, which is a bit easier. Some really good stuff on China, but the stellar books are Sagan's The Varieties of Scientific Experience, Julia Scheeres Jesus Land, Chen Guidi's Will the Boat Sink the Water? and two troubling books on Christian nationalism, Kingdom Coming by Michelle Goldberg and American Fascists by Chris Hedges.Washington DC - March 29 - 30
Out to DC again this week for the second USCC meeting of 2007. The weather could not have been more beautiful, so I walked from the Dirksen Senate Building almost all the way back to my hotel near the DuPont Circle ("almost" only because I ran out of walkway crossing the Potomac on Constitution Avenue!). Some beautiful pictures primarily because the day was so stunning.The Beijing Olympics & US Multinationals
My analysis of the role political strife could play on US multinationals in China during the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been published at Asia Times here.Buddhism, Reason & Spirituality
One of Andrew Sullivan's readers took the time to respond to the latest exchange between Sullivan and Harris. In your dialogue with Sam, I'm surprised you have not referenced Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism, which does a pretty good job traversing the divide between reason and faith. Buddhism, of course, is non-theistic – the question of who created the universe is set aside in favor of a focus on addressing the vicissitudes of the human condition. In various forms of Buddhism, semi-divine or transcendental beings come into the picture, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. But the focus is always on the alleviation of individual suffering and, ultimately, awakening or enlightenment, which is often defined as seeing into the 'true' nature of things, ...James Mann - The China Fantasy
New York Times best-selling author, James Mann, who gave us what I would argue is the best contextual history of Bush's war cabinet in The Rise of the Vulcans, has written a profound, if troubling new book The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression. Mr. Mann was kind enough to grant me an interview for the release of his new book, which can be read at Asia Times here. My full review of his book has also been published at Asia Times and can be read here.Andrew Cohen - What is Enlightenment Anyway?
Some time ago Cohen wrote a lengthy blog post about what enlightenment actually is, and in doing some catch-up reading today, I read his essay in whole. His candor in acknowledging the lingering impact of postmodernity's narcissism on those who are spiritually enlightened, but still struggle to defend the "wholeness" of spiritual experience is convicting. Many of my own students, over the years, would have been considered, by any neo-advaita standard, to be “enlightened.” All I would have had to do was affirm them, tell them they were God’s gift to humanity, and send them out with my blessing, and I’m sure many would have done pretty well out there in the postmodern spiritual supermarket, where “all is ...China’s Internal Challenges
Not all, and perhaps not even most, of China's future challenges lie without; many are within its own borders. Questions of civil unrest manifest themselves occasionally in labor riots and clashes between peasants and rural farmers. This is largely overlooked in the US since it is believed these are necessary vestiges of China's dance with modernization; however, understanding these concerns is necessary if we are to not be surprised at changes to China's political systems or its outward stance due to inward political pressures. The IHT recently published an Op-Ed by Minxin Pei, Carnegie China Program Director, which touched on these difficulties: Social disharmony, in most cases, is the symptom of an unresponsive and unaccountable political system. So ...Politics Trumps All (Again)
As most recently evidenced by the Libby verdict, the genuinely important issues and stories in Washington go un-addressed, un-heralded, and un-penalized. The most recent scandal to make news is today's testimony from 6 former US Attorney's who were fired after pressure from the Bush Administration. Before we all roll our collective eyes at yet another scandal, one more indiscretion that will be exploited for political gain, we should allow this story to take shape. If true, it suggests much more luridly the extent to which political forces have penetrated and compromised arenas previously considered the very roots of how we protect dissent and enforce the law. From the Washington Post: The Justice Department said initially that the ...Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ali's recent book, Infidel, has made waves with its critique not only of Islamic fundamentalism, but the permissive intellectual environment within Europe which has sought to, through the lens of postmodernism and cultural relativism, make most critique of lessor and better ideas difficult. That she is misunderstood as a fundamentalist of her own right - but in the realm of rationalism - exhibits how far our appreciation and understanding of Enlightenment values has sunk. Hitchens, rightly sensitive to this attempt to equate all ideas as equally valid without a hierarchy for differentiating the better from the worst, has written a very good essay on Ali which brings her book and this argument together. From the piece: In ... « Previous EntriesAbout MysteriousFaith
“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
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