Abuse of Names as a Herald of Tyranny The first ever political coup in the long ancient history of China was heralded by an incident in court involving abuse of names. According to the Records of the Grand Historian (史记), not long after Qin Er Shi, the youngest son of the First Emperor of Qin, succeeded the throne by killing his eldest brother, one of his scheming ministers, who helped […]
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A Stranger’s Tribute to a Scholar
Professor Larry Hurtado, a prominent New Testament scholar, passed away on Monday [1]. He was highly respected in his field, as the tribute at Christianity Today and others posted by his colleagues and students can attest. Although a stranger living on another continent, he had a significant impact on me. Until about three years ago, I didn’t know that New Testament study was a serious scholarly discipline. I think it […]
Read moreWhat is Humility: In Praise of Offense
You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. –Psalm 66:11-12 A Personal Story Let me preface this story by saying that I’ve lived a mostly sheltered life, and therefore am the least justified to take offence at anyone. I […]
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I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers.” –Sherlock Holmes “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter Although I was raised in a culture which ranks humility as a virtue, I never understood why it is a virtue, […]
Read moreBeauty and the Ontological Argument: Never Labor In Vain
Not essential? I think you misunderstand the meaning of the word. No Blauschein, sir. Stand over there. Move. Next! What do you mean, “Not essential”? I teach history and literature. Since when it’s not essential? — A scene from Schindler’s List Your Labor is Not In Vain Recently another WP blog caught my attention, because the author published a series of posts on subjects (tags) I’ve been following, such as […]
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Beauty and the Ontological Argument: The Backstory
About a month ago I posted a video with the title “Beauty and the Ontological Argument”, without an accompanying article. At the time, I was a little exhausted after a long week at work, and beauty is a very difficult, if not impossible, subject to write, not to mention I’m not good at words to begin with, but I’ll try to complete what I started. A Glimpse of the Transcendent […]
Read moreOn the Dignity of the Person: Human Worth and Gift-giving
Man as Scrooge Watching the movie “Scrooge” (1951) starring Alastair Sim has become part of Christmas tradition for me. I’ve seen other film adaptions of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, but no actor conveys the joy of reclamation as infectiously as Sim did in the 1951 film. Scrooge was rich, but he lived as a poor wretch. He had no appreciation of human worth, neither the worth of his fellow human […]
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