*Note: After taking a summer break from this series, I am returning to it and will finish it this fall. For other posts in the series, see the bottom of this post.* The flexible nature of discussion presents an inherent difficulty for any discussion leader: how does he ensure that the discussion goes well or [...]
Archive for September, 2007
September 28, 2007
1
Conversations that Count: How Leaders Lead Discussions
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Discussion Leading
September 28, 2007
0
Jihad and Justice: Augustine’s Citizens
By Tex in International Politics, Islam, War and Peace, While DeployedBesides distinguishing between two cities: the city of God and the city of man, Augustine also pays close attention to the differences between the members of these two cities. By examining the nature of the populace once can gain a clearer view of the ends towards which each of these two cities strive. Augustine refers [...]
September 28, 2007
2
The Malleability of the Body: Is Physicality Given?
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Christianity and CultureAdolescent brains, it turns out, are different from adult brains in at least one way. As neuroscientist Deborah Yurgelun-Todd has found, adolescents use a different part of their brain than adults in responding to emotional states. It is tempting to see this as an argument against the notion that “adolescence” is a cultural phenomenon that [...]
September 27, 2007
5
Under Review: Neurosis and Human Growth
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Reviews (Books), UncategorizedThere are few books that I read (fortunately) that hit me with what I can only describe as “explosive force.” In fact, Karen Horney’s Neurosis and Human Growth is one of the first books I can remember that I could not finish until I had set it aside for a while (nearly two months) to [...]
September 26, 2007
1
Our Teachable Moment: Learning (the right) Lessons from the War
By Matthew Lee Anderson in PoliticsDavid Gushee has written a piece in Christianity Today lamenting the fact that Christians supported the decision to invade Iraq. In it, he contends that now that public opinion has turned against the war, we should embrace our “teachable moment.” He writes: Until now, [the President] has resisted calls to reconsider his strategy or to [...]
September 26, 2007
1
Under Review: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Reviews (Books)GodBlogCon, with which I have been formally associated in the past, rests on the assumption that Christians should engage culture and do so using whatever tools are at our disposal. In this case, that’s the “new media.” It is a proposition which I happily and eagerly affirm. But in doing so, I have become aware [...]
September 25, 2007
5
The Future and Its Enemies
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Reviews (Books)For many, the future is a source of anxiety. Macbeth’s temptation–to know with certainty the outcome of our lives–is powerful because it is common. Yet there are others for whom the unknown possibilities of what is to come prompt only excitement, optimism and an eagerness to innovate. It is this conflict, this disparity in dispositions [...]
September 24, 2007
0
Jihad and Justice: The Two Cities
By Tex in International Politics, Islam, War and Peace, While DeployedThe conception of just war and its relationship to the state is indispensable in both Christian and Islamic political thought. Since both Christians and Muslims set up right authority as a condition for just war, and further, they take this authority from the hands of the individual and locate it in the ruling power of [...]
September 24, 2007
3
The Body of Music
By Matthew Lee Anderson in All Things LovelyMusic has a body. Or, as Jeremy Begbie argues in the latest Books and Culture, the expression of music is inseparable from corporeality. Music making and music hearing are ways we engage the physical world. Even in the case of electronically generated music, the body is often involved through, say, a keyboard, and patterns of [...]
September 23, 2007
0
The Undramatic Universe: Jason Bourne and God
By Matthew Lee Anderson in TheologyAfter watching The Bourne Ultimatum again (this time with my wife), I am even more convinced and intrigued by Mere-O reader Nobody’s analysis of it: But after two movies of witnessing his superior abilities and knack for escaping any situation, he’s acheived a legendary status that distances him from the audience and lessens the suspense [...]
September 23, 2007
0
The Body Project: A History of American Girls
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Reviews (Books)“At the close of the twentieth century, the female body poses an enormous problem for American girls, and it does so because of the culture in which we live.” So opens Joan Jacobs Brumberg’s The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. What is that problem? Females tend to hit sexual maturation–experience menarche, that [...]
September 23, 2007
0
The Kid Nation that Isn’t.
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Youth CultureWhen I first heard about Kid Nation, the new reality tv-show by CBS, I was excited. Having been recently been made aware by Dr. Epstein about the ways our culture’s infantalization of young people can restrict their growth, my thoughts were similar to those which he recently expressed: The show itself is amazing. CBS took [...]
September 21, 2007
5
The Possibility of Dogmatism
By Matthew Lee Anderson in ScienceOver on Mere-O Abridged (the sidebar), where I highlight interesting articles by attempting a pithy line about them, I highlighted a review of the recently released research indicating that homosexuals can, in fact, change their behavior. The main thrust of the research calls into question this rather dogmatic position by the American Psychological Association: Can [...]