Posts Tagged ‘belief’
The Greater Evil: Proscription or Compulsion?
December 14, 2015
There’s a new law in China, and it’s aimed at weakening a faith. As the Chinese government is not one to bother with currying world opinion, those who speak for the authorities are quite aboveboard regarding exactly what they’re about and why: If a people are made to do something, they will soon enough not…
Read MoreWhy We Donate: Two 24-Year-Olds on Meaningful Support
December 9, 2015
Today, Image Director of Programs Tyler McCabe and Marketing Associate Aubrey Allison share their perspectives on the future of art, fostering a culture of empathy, and the role of religion in a thriving inner life. To join them in supporting Image’s annual campaign, click here. Citizens of the Future By Tyler McCabe When I was…
Read MoreA Blaze of Holy Unease, Part 2
February 11, 2014
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin saw creation as dynamic in matter and spirit, and understood the world and specifically human consciousness as continually evolving. He believed creation to be the process of divine incarnation, all of the world perpetually moving toward God. The process was not and could not yet be complete. As a result “nothing is profane here below for those who have eyes to see.” All is sacred.
Read MoreThe Second Coming of Flannery O’Connor
January 30, 2014
The ongoing conversation about contemporary literature and faith that I have been having with Dana Gioia and Paul Elie across half a dozen print and online venues, though it has touched on a dozen different issues, ultimately comes down to one: “absence” versus “presence.” The question Elie has raised, you may recall, is whether we…
Read MoreThe Contemporary Novel of Belief, Part 2
January 9, 2014
In yesterday’s post I wrote about author and critic Paul Elie’s contention that few contemporary writers depict characters struggling with religious belief in novels with contemporary settings. Among other things, I argued that his conviction that having a contemporary setting is somehow supremely valuable is both short-sighted and literalistic—that Elie has a rather narrow understanding…
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