It is entirely possible that over the last few weeks you have not been getting up at stupid’o’clock to watch Rooney, Messi or Torres in action. You may not even know (or care) who they are. But unless you’ve been living under a rock you will at least be aware that the FIFA World Cup is . . . → Read More: Imago Diego…?!
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William Stuntz is a professor at Harvard Law School. He is a Christian, he is dying of cancer and has lived for many years with chronic back pain. In a recent interview with Patheos, Stuntz talks about life and death, pain and suffering, and the joys of his wife’s cooking. It is a moving reflection on a . . . → Read More: William Stuntz on suffering “I want I want I want it now”. No, these aren’t the words of Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (see below), but lyrics from the new Black Eyed Peas song “The Now Generation”, off their latest album The E.N.D. Here’s the context. This is the now generation You are what you consume. Put another way, consumerism is a religious impulse and like religion, it seeks to shape our vision for life. According to ad executive Douglas Atkin, in an interview with PBS, there is a deep connection between the type of allegiance shown to brands and the type of allegiance shown to cults. I believe . . . → Read More: Advertithing? Who knew the Vatican had its own astronomers? I certainly didn’t. It turns out, however, that it does – priests studying space through the aptly named “pope scope”. The Walrus recently interviewed one of these Vatican astronomers, Guy Consolmagno, and asked him about the relationship between science and religion – it turns out its quite healthy. . . . → Read More: Science and Religion We live in a photoshopped world. According to Jeannine Stein, staff-writer for the L.A. Times, “it’s quite possible that the vast majority of images seen in the public arena have been altered.” Stein argues: Photoshop, the go-to graphics editing program that got a foothold in the 1990s, has become so ubiquitous that most of us gaze at . . . → Read More: Photoshop of Horrors It turns out, the present is not dead. According to a New York Times article, recently socialites in Manhattan rediscovered the present when they hosted a series of small parties which were explicitly “off the record”, which meant “no tweeting, no blogging, no photos”. The idea, according to one of the party’s hosts, was “to let . . . → Read More: "News of my death has been greatly exaggerated" (so says The Present Moment) I have not wanted to write anything about Michael Jackson’s death. I have wanted to avoid pouncing on his life as some sort of cautionary tale. But perhaps Michael Jackson needs to be faced, to be spoken about – he was, after-all, a major cultural figure. As I have reflected on his life and death, I have . . . → Read More: Michael Jackson: The Man in the Mirror Below is a post written by a good friend of mine Charles Belcher sharing some thoughts raised by Lesslie Newbigin’s fantastic little book, Foolishness to the Greeks (Like anything by Newbigin, well worth a read!). Charles has been involved unofficially with Compass for a few years now and in order to widen the conversation carried on . . . → Read More: Opening up the conversation I came across this video clip the other day, it shows a surfer rescuing a kangaroo from the sea. It brought to mind the poem I’ve posted below by Les Murray, both because of its subject matter and because of its Australian origin. Finally, has anyone ever heard a stronger Australian accent than that of the . . . → Read More: The poetics of surfing and the rescue of a kangaroo |
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