A Ministry of Answers: A Review of Craig and Gorra’s “A Reasonable Response”
Chances are that, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve heard of William Lane Craig. But Joe Gorra is the hardest working genius you’ve never heard of in evangelicalism. Among other things, Gorra has worked with Craig as a research assistant...
Because Telling Another Person They’re Just Wrong Usually Isn’t Helpful
From what I hear, there was a presidential election recently. I’ve also heard that it highlighted (again) some fundamental differences about moral issues that divide the citizenry. Just in case those things are true, and even if they’re not, I...
Thomas Says: Scandal, It’s So Special
This is the third in my intermittent series on Aquinas on the topic of scandal, which is covered in question 43 of the second part of the second part of his Summa Theologiae. In the first two posts I covered...
Thomas Says: So Scandalous It’s a Sin
In the first post in this series on Aquinas’s account of scandal, we saw that Aquinas defines scandal as “something less rightly said or done that occasions spiritual downfall” and that he distinguishes between active and passive scandal. In this...
Thomas Says: So Scandalous!
Because you can never have too much Aquinas, I’ve decided to reboot my blogging here with another series on the thought of the Angelic Doctor. The first topic in the series was Thomas’s thoughts on killing. For no particular reason,...
One Boring Book for College
After the recommendations of books like A Severe Mercy, Resident Aliens, and Lord of the Rings, I’m afraid my recommended reading will sound flat-out boring. It certainly is no respecter of Mr. Anderson’s criteria for a book to be read...
Socrates, Remy, and the Solitary Contemplation of Beauty
In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates is shown to be very strange. In an episode related by Alcibiades, Socrates is said to have stood all day and night in an army camp—with the other soldiers lying down watching him—considering something. (Near the...
Thomas Says: A Recap on Killing
This is the last post in the Thomas Says series on killing. I want to summarize some points Thomas makes in this question of the Summa. First, let’s note the obvious, which hasn’t been noted yet in this series: The...
Thomas Says: What Happens if, Whoops, I Killed You?
This is the second-to-last post summarizing the position on killing laid out by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa. In the concluding post I will pull together a number of points about his position on killing. In this post I will...
Thomas Says: Why You Can (And Should) Kill in Self-Defense, Part 2
In this post, I want to conclude my summary and discussion of Thomas’s reasoning about killing in self-defense by examining the objections to his position that he considers and his replies to those objections. (The first post is here; the...