I’m a professor at a large state university, a paradigmatically Alexandrian institution, who doesn’t fit the standard mold. I’m a Christian, worried about the state of the church and trying to reconcile faith and reason. I’m a conservative, often disgusted but often amused at the political leadership in the United States and other democracies. I’m also an amateur musician and an animal lover.
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I enjoyed all of your comments. I was enlightened to know that ours is an “Alexandrian institution.” I’d like to hear more about that. Your comments about both the stewardship sermons and the S-CHIP family selection were right-on. Recently I’ve been interested in the “politics” of one of our graduates–namely, Jenna Bush. How much of her “success” as the author of a book whose proceeds are going to charity is simply window-dressing to make up for her earlier sins/embarassments to the White House?
The quotation from Jacques Barzun is from his article, “Look It Up! Check It Out!” which originally appeared in The American Scholar and was reprinted in his book The Culture We Deserve.
Do you ever say things like “Hook em’ stillers”
Would you comment on what strikes me as a terrible article by Gary Wills, in the L.A. times, Nov. 4, that there can be no religious argument–”Abortion isn’t a religious issue” against abortion? I do not know your views, but that piece seems to be to exceed by far the usual “fallacies per paragraph” (fpp) quota, by some margin.
Pauly
My allegiance to the Steelers goes back so long that I can’t confuse it with anything else!
Thanks for bringing the Wills article to my attention. I’ll do a post on it. You’re right—it has a surprisingly high fallacy quota—and most of the fallacies strike me as blatant, of a kind to which few first-year college students would succumb. It’s also disorganized. It would earn at best a C in intro. philosophy!
Professor Phil:
Can you write up something about N. Rescher? It’s rather “off-blog” but I wonder if: a. you’ve spent much time with him; b. why he decided to become a Christian–and a Catholic one at that; c. what is “pragmatic idealism” and how that relates to his Christianity?
I like that you are trying to “reconcile faith and reason”.
I would love to have you on my radio show. Please contarct me.
You can find the radio interview here.
I would like to have you on my show again. Can you contact me please?
Silvio
Definitely love your blog. I can always appreciate someone who’s got plenty of insightful things to say, isn’t afraid of speaking their mind from their point of view, from their religious or political background.
I had not heard this term “Alexandrian period” before. I find the ability to sum up an entire state of a nation quite impressive. My own writing has taken me off the shores of the US, but I have delved into the changing mores of a society and seen them from the inside. Having done this, I remain confident that history will repeat itself. http://www.bentpage.wordpress.com.
Phil,
If you want to add Facebook or email sharing buttons to your blog posts, there’s a plugin that does it for you:
http://tinyurl.com/sharebuttons
Hope you find it helpful!
Cheers,
Jerry