“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence comes evil?” This saying attributed (perhaps incorrectly) to Epicurus is a common argument against the existence of God. When talking about the problem of evil, everyone seems to point his finger at either God, or the world around him. […]
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Institutes of the Christian Religion: The Use and Abuse of Images
What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols? Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, Yet in it there is no breath at all. But the Lord is in his […]
Read more“Institutes of the Christian Religion” by John Calvin
Preface Institutes of the Christian Religion is a foundational work of Protestant systematic theology, and included in the Great Books of the Western World series, which I’ve been reading and blogging in the past few years. Ironically, I was called a Calvinist once, at a time when I had no idea who Calvin was. Now, twenty years later, I’m reading John Calvin’s magnum opus for the first time. One interesting […]
Read moreThe History of Rome: The Leadership of L. Aemilius Paulus
Inauguration Speech “I think, Quirites, that my having received, through the ballot, Macedonia as my province has been greeted more warmly than when I was congratulated on my election as consul, or on the day when I entered on office. And the sole reason for this, I believe, is that you thought I could be the means of bringing this long-protracted war to such a close as shall be worthy […]
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“The History of Rome” by Livy
In Book 34, Livy recounts a debate in the Roman senate concerning the Oppian Law, which forbids ‘female extravagance’. It presents a microcosm of ancient Rome. All the issues being raised here, such as moral virtues and vices, human rights, the relations between the sexes and between the social classes, the desires of the people vs. the sanctity of the laws, are universal, and highly relevant today, though the particulars […]
Read moreC. S. Lewis: God is Very Unscrupulous
A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere – ‘Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,’ as Herbert says, ‘fine nets and stratagems.’ God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous. –C. S. Lewis “Surprised by Joy” All the books were beginning to turn against me. Indeed, I must have been blind as a bat not to […]
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“Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan
Pilgrim’s Progress is an original work that does not borrow grandeur from classics but becomes a classic by its own simplicity and profundity. Bunyan writes with clarity and structure, and insights into human nature. In his essay Why I am not a Christian, Bertrand Russell lists disbelief in a literal Hell as one of the reasons. I didn’t get far into this book on my first attempt more than twenty […]
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