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Authenticity Under Threat: an Existential Response Part 1
Existentialism offers neither attractions nor peril to people who are perfectly convinced that they are headed in the right direction, that they possess the means to attain a reasonably perfect happiness, and that they have a divine mandate to remove anyone who seems inclined to interfere with this aim. Existentialism calls into question the validity,… Continue reading
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Evangelicalism and Conservatism: From Doctrine Back to Disposition
If you have been paying attention, you will notice that there have been two particular examples of fragmentation that have coincided with each other, a fragmentation of the conservative movement, and a fragmenting of evangelical Christianity. In the heart of conservatism, there is a disagreement between the centrists who have complex sensitivities and more radical… Continue reading
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Heroes of Faith: The Story of Jephthah
Prefatory remark – This message, and the one that follows it, were preached at Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Edmonton, on February 11th and 18th respectively. This first installment of the two messages came as the closing message on Faith-based on the characters mentioned in Hebrews 11. The second installment introduces an agreed Lenten focus… Continue reading
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Adam Smith: The Moral Dimensions of Economic Life
Personally, I am informed by both a Continental-Philosophical tradition and a communitarian Christian religious background that criticized Adam Smith as hostile to charity and a theoretical bastion of “self-interest”; it would not be a stretch to say that both modern economics and its critics have failed to connect Smith’s moral anthropology to his more famous… Continue reading
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Contrived Individual Responsibility: the Danger of the New Conservatives
“…it is physically impossible to pick oneself up by one’s own bootstraps…” Continue reading
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The 10 Commandments and The 8 Beatitudes: Development in Consciousness
We are now living in the necessary push back and what we need most is grace. Grace is not manufactured or created by us. It is a new person, a new idea, a new consensus – which feels like it falls from heaven. Continue reading
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Writing in the Active and Passive Voice
I am a fan of good writing. Good writing communicates ideas to the minds of your readers. When people read your writing, they don’t just interpret its meaning through the words you chose. They also interpret it through your writing’s tone. This tone, just like your tone of voice when you’re speaking, is largely shaped… Continue reading
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The Human Person and History in the Age of Mass Reproduction
That which withers in the age of mass reproduction is the authenticity of the individual. Continue reading
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Post-Easter: Resurrection
The most valid intuition of the “religionless religion” is their awareness that the vast majority of people today, i.e., those who “cannot believe”, are encountering Christ, even though they cannot adjust to the idea that life acquires meaning only when one “joins the Church”. Continue reading
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ONE FEAST, DIVERSE DISHES: Inviting Canadians to a Feast of Stories
“…our “politically correct concerned” society fails to provide new avenues for intellectual dialogue outside traditional intellectual engagement; so where can we find such opportunities? ” Continue reading
Raymond Klassen - Ideals and Identities 