The irony in my giving this talk in that place, under these circumstances... reaches my heart with a deep and absurd smile. I grieve it, yes. But God's plans are always better than mine.
You’re also not a friend if you refuse to let people come and say, “I just think you’re absolutely wrong.” You have to listen. You have to share decisions.
is transformed into something much more important, something vital to the life of the world, when the people who share the table are engaging in the practices of love and of thinking.
"...while you may isolate at home for a while, Thou belongs to Me, and I to Thou. And this is no longer a trial."
We have learned ourselves out of covenant relationships, and this is the core of learned loneliness. Covenants seem archaic because so many are not willing to say: I will do my part, even if, for a time, you aren't doing your part.
We are now at the beginning of the end of the modern university. The same disease that polarizes us makes the University less and less relevant. This is not an economic argument; it is an existential one. (With updated links)
It does not take courage to be authentically yourself; it takes humility.
A meal is transformed into something much more important, something vital to the life of the world when the people who share the table are engaging in the practices of love and of thinking.
The non-violent, but argumentative, ideal of liberal education is not the suddenly arrived-at point of a nonpolarized liberal society. Instead, the purpose of liberal education is the iterative practice of a non-violent but argumentative society.
Imagine you are waiting at a train station. You are waiting to try to get on the train of thought that leads to the destination of effective freedom and the path of virtuous moral development.
Raymond Klassen - Ideals and Identities 