The birth of naturalism

  
By any measure, the scientific revolution of the 17th century was a significant milestone in the emergence of our modern secular age. This remarkable historical moment is often understood as science finally liberating itself from the strictures of medieval religion, striking out on a new path that eschewed theological explanations and focused its attentions solely on a disenchanted, natural world. But this version of events is, at best, half true.
Medieval science, broadly speaking, had followed Aristotle in seeking explanations in terms of the inherent causal properties of natural things. God was certainly involved, at least to the extent that he had originally invested things with their natural properties and was said to 'concur' with their usual operations. Yet the natural world had its own agency. Beginning in the 17th century, the French philosopher and scientist René Descartes and his fellow intellectual revolutionaries dispensed with the idea of internal powers and virtues. They divested natural objects of inherent causal powers and attributed all motion and change in the universe directly to natural laws.
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Authenticity and purity in worship music

  This article critically examines the concepts of authenticity and purity in musical worship, arguing that their prominence may obstruct broader social action and justice. While authenticity is often regarded as the hallmark of 'good' music, particularly in worship, this notion can lead to an overemphasis on personal devotion, distancing individuals from communal and societal concerns. Drawing on ethnomusicological perspectives, it explores how authenticity is contextually dependent, often reflecting the values of specific communities, yet potentially fostering inward-focused worship. Furthermore, it introduces the concept of purity as a counterpart to authenticity, noting its historical and theological roots in Abrahamic traditions. Purity in worship, much like in marketing or cultural identity, can contribute to exclusionary practices and a reluctance to engage with the complexities of a compromised world. By analysing contemporary worship practices and the cultural discourse surrounding 'pure worship', the article critiques the prioritization of spiritual purity over social engagement. Ultimately, it calls for a reorientation of worship practices away from these ideals towards a more inclusive and socially responsible form of engagement that embraces imperfection and compromise as paths towards communal good.    
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Christ in Me? Three Wonders of Life in the Spirit

  
Talk about the Holy Spirit? That's always been tricky. After all, he is the Spirit, the Wind, the great unseen Enigma, that most mysterious and hidden Person of the ineffable Godhead.
Also, we live in times that can make thinking and speaking about the Spirit all the more difficult. For one, pervasive secular influences pressure us to deal with concrete phenomena — the seeable, hearable, touchable, tastable. The effect is a subtle but strong bias against the Spirit. With Jesus, we're talking real-life humanity, at least in theory; with the church, we're talking real-life fellow Christians; with creation, we're talking tangible, sense-able, the world that surrounds us; with anthropology, flesh and blood and our own undeniable inner person. But the Invisible Wind is almost a no-starter for the mind shaped by secular influences.
What's more, many Christians have the unfortunate tendency to quickly turn Spirit-talk to "manifestations of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 14:12) — that is, spiritual gifts and especially controversial ones like speaking in tongues. All too soon, we are not even talking about the Spirit and the real heart of his work but mainly speculating about ourselves and telling strange stories.
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Ten Sweeter, Stronger Looks

  
"For one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ!"
This memorable line from Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1813–1843) has drawn many Christians out of the cellar of morbid introspection. Some of us once lived in that cellar — bent down double, curved concave, scrutinizing, analyzing, paralyzing. For every one look at Christ, we took ten at self.
But then the Spirit began to unbend us, convex us. He sent a friend, gave us a passage, or perhaps used M'Cheyne's famous line to lift us up and out to Christ. Self-scrutiny gradually gave way to Christ-scrutiny. We dared to believe that taking ten looks at him was better and safer than taking ten looks within. So, we looked and looked and looked — ten times and more.
I have no desire to discourage such "looking to Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2). At the same time, however, I do wonder if M'Cheyne's quote has sometimes been taken in ways he didn't quite intend. We might read his counsel and think he gave little or no place to introspection — that he countered every inward turn with "Christ! Look to Christ!" And so we might strive for the same attitude.
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The Olympics Drag Scene Got Christian Art History Right

Last Friday, the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony featured a performance by drag artists gathered around a long table. Immediately, conservative Christian politicians and Catholic leadership expressed disgust and condemnation at what they believed was a recreation of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" (1495–98). The Vatican's representative for the Olympics, Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard, said the performance deeply hurt him, while Donald Trump called it a "disgrace" and Elon Musk denounced it as "extremely disrespectful."
Opening Ceremony Director Thomas Jolly was quick to correct conservative critics of the performance, clarifying that it was inspired by Greek mythology, with many pointing to Dutch artist Jan Harmensz van Bijlert's 1630 painting "The Feast of the Gods." However, Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps apologized, along with the International Olympic Committee.
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THE NEW TOWER OF BABEL

We all know Babel (no, not the language learning company). It's in Genesis. The Biblical story about God making so many languages and dialects and (let's add) opinions that no one could understand each other or effectively communicate. One legacy of the triumph of digital technology and AI in every corner of our existence is that we've recreated this Babel. Let me try to unpack this, and bear with me if it seems I'm saying something derogatory about one belief or another — my aim is to avoid that game and try to explain the mechanism, the social and cultural story, by which our new Babel is ascendant, and the old ways of arguing and understanding each other are on the decline, if not on life support.
Start with an oldy but goody: the old war between scientific materialists and folks with traditional religious notions, like immaterial minds (think: souls) given or designed by a god, or more to the point, a Judeo-Christian God. That was an orienting debate for decades, nay, centuries. But we've Babel-ed it. We've Babel-ed it good. As we'll see, it's not just that debate either. More and more, it seems it's reasoned debate itself.
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Virtue, Happiness, and Purpose

Religion is not primarily morality. Morality is not primarily rules. These are two of the conclusions to draw from a new book about virtue by Fr. Basil Cole, published by the Catholic press TAN Books. Fr. Cole's book is essentially a simple and transparent exposition of Christian ethics. I'd wager, though, that many even among believers don't realize to what extent Christian ethics represents a very particular approach to the question of right action, one that differs from ways of thinking dominant in the modern world. Philosophers term the classic Christian approach "virtue ethics" and often contrast it with two other possible viewpoints, known respectively as consequentialism and deontology. Put simply, consequentialism says that what counts is the results of my action, while deontology (from the Greek deon, binding or obligation) says that what counts is following the right moral rules.

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