When it comes to religion, some of us want to have it both ways: when deeply religious people do bad things, we are quick to say that their religious beliefs are to blame, but when deeply religious people do good things, we take little to no interest in their religious beliefs, as if those beliefs [...]
Archive for the ‘Theological Ethics’ Category
#49 Reporting to God for duty
Posted in Ethics, God, Philosophy of Religion, Religion, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged Corrie ten Boom, Desmond Tutu, Diana Butler Bass, Dorothy Day, Florence Nightingale, John Newman, Scott Walker, William Wilberforce on March 7, 2011 | 2 Comments »
#47 Men, please get as mad as hell!
Posted in Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, Religion, Religious Philosophy, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged Afghanistan, forward-thinking men, Hamid Karzai, Indonesia, Iran, Nematullah Shahrani, Shia Islam, Sunni Islam, violence against women on August 21, 2010 | 1 Comment »
When women have gotten the right to vote or to divorce or to inherit property or to have legal protection from rape, it’s because men have agreed to change the law of the land. A few forward-thinking women demanded those rights—some nicely, some not so nicely. Allied to their cause was some of the menfolk, [...]
#45 Take to the sea for four days of Lent
Posted in God, Prayer, Spiritual Exercises, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged Howard Westwood, Lenten Manual on February 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Courage! Howard Westwood’s 1939 Lenten Manual uses outdated, high-flown language, is written in the mode of all-men-all-of-the-time, and mentions several, mostly-forgotten dead people. Still, his exercises and meditations are worth a look. Besides, Lent isn’t supposed to be easy. So, as Westwood might say, abandon your safe haven and sail into the high seas of [...]
#38 Multifaith squabble–over love!
Posted in God, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Religions, Religion, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged Multifaith dialogue, Papal encyclical, Pope Benedict XVI, Thomas Aquinas, Thomism on October 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you imagine that multifaith dialogue is easy, this post will change your mind. Continue reading but be warned that you’ll be asked to tease out the intricacies of an argument between the University of Chicago historian, David Nirenberg, a champion of secularism, and His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, the champion par excellence of Roman [...]
#32 The wait for God is over
Posted in God, Religious Philosophy, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged existence, history of God, Karen Armstrong, reality on September 9, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Like many of us, the religion-scholar and popular author, Karen Armstrong, spent decades waiting for God. Raised a Roman Catholic, God remained a shadowy figure even as she sat through countless sermons and countless catechism classes. God, described to her in abstract terms, meant little to her. God existed—of this, Armstrong was certain, at least [...]
#31 A “why-do-the-right-thing” quiz
Posted in Ethics, God, Theological Ethics, tagged decision-making, moral maxim on July 30, 2009 | 4 Comments »
NOTE: The Naked Theologian will be on hiatus for the month of August and will return after the Labor Day holiday. A Scenario: You stop by the convenience store to pick up a gallon of milk. On your way out, you hand the cashier a $10 bill. After she gives you your change, you realize [...]
#30 Deists of the world, unite!
Posted in God, Philosophy of Religion, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged deism, Supreme Being, Voltaire, worship on July 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Deist, deist, theist—say those words in Jersey (pronounced Joy-zie) and they all sound the same. Fortunately, spelling will help us keep tabs on which is which. Besides spelling, there are important differences. Of note: Deists (capital D) went the way of the dodo bird and deists (lowercase d) are rarer than diamonds. Theists rule–like it [...]
#27 Iran and an ethics of yielding
Posted in Ethics, God, Theological Ethics, tagged Ali Khamenei, Iran, Mahmood Ahmadinejad, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Montaigne on June 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
There is the world as-it-is, and then there is the world that-could-be. In Iran, this is the world as-it-is: the disputed legitimacy of the recent re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad propelled enraged supporters of his opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, into the sweltering streets of Teheran. Ahmadinejad (with the blessing of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah [...]
#24 Everybody goes to heaven, right?
Posted in Ethics, God, Philosophy of Religion, Religion, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged degrees of bliss, Julian of Norwich, universalism on May 31, 2009 | 9 Comments »
Most Americans agree that yes, everybody goes to heaven after they die. Not buying it? The part about most Americans agreeing that everybody goes to heaven? Here’s the empirical evidence. A few months ago, a study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (mentioned by Charles Blow in a New York Times editorial) showed that 70 [...]
#23 Generalized religiousness and the American dream
Posted in Ethics, God, Philosophy of Religions, Religion, Religious Philosophy, Theological Ethics, Theology, tagged generalized religiousness, sexy messiah on May 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In a recent New York Times editorial, Ross Douthat, describes religious trends in 21st century America as neither shifting towards the extreme of unbelief or the extreme of fundamentalism. Instead, religious trends are shifting toward a “generalized ‘religiousness’ detached from the claims of any specific faith tradition.” While growing numbers of Americans are abandoning organized [...]
The Naked Theologian
is a Unitarian Universalist minister working on a Ph.D. in Theology
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