Daily Theology
Archive for January 2013
Downton Abbey, Francis Bacon, Spiderman, and St. Augustine: Who holds the power of That Thing We Call Science?
“I am come in very truth, leading Nature to you with all of her children, to bind her to your service and to make her your slave.” Francis Bacon was a beast of a man. Standing in the midst of the post-Reformation chaos, aside the growing Copernican revolution, and hearkening the beginnings of the Enlightenment, Bacon spoke of nature as a … Continue reading
Underdogs Become Juggernauts
I haven’t watched Glee in a few years now. It wasn’t a decisive break; I just stopped having a DVR and lost interest in a lot of TV shows as a result. But as someone who self-identified as a geek in high school, I generally appreciated the idea of a show about socially marginalized nerds … Continue reading
MAD Men: Guns, America and the Challenge of Pacem in Terris
Peace is born from the heart, but it will be easier to achieve if we have fewer weapons in hand. – Federico Lombardi, SJ This weekend, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, the Vatican’s official spokesperson added to the voices of Catholic leaders in support of President Obama’s common sense proposals for greater control and regulation of … Continue reading
Downton Abbey and the Role of the Woman
Episode 4 of Downton Abbey shifted our focus rather quickly from nobility to gender. Where the previous episode saw multiple attacks on the prestige and place of nobility in English culture, such attacks were all but non-existent this time around. Instead, the wealth and nobility is temporarily stabilized, while the role of gender equality is … Continue reading
Downton Abbey and the Cultural Divide
So I’m just gonna put it out there: I really enjoy watching Downton Abbey. I’ve watched my share of TV shows in recent years, and Downton has won my allegiance like Peter Jackson after two Lord of the Rings movies back in 2002. You can find full summaries of the first two seasons easily enough online, so I’ll … Continue reading
Little Second Coming
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, the “manifestation,” or, in a looser translation, the “coming out” of the newborn Christ in the world. In the Christian West, over a very complicated history, we focused primarily on the Magi from the Gospel of Matthew. But in the Christian East, three events at the beginning of … Continue reading
