Theological musings, spurred by the approaching Solemnity of the Assumption

I’ve always wondered something about free will, God’s plan, and the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Mary, Ever Virgin; the coming of the Solemnity of the Assumption (Friday: It’s a Holy Day of Obligation, so get yourself some Mass.) has re-ignited my curiosity, so I ask anyone more theologically inclined and/or knowledgeable than I [...]

Brooks, Larison, gadget fads

Daniel Larison, spot-on, as always, commenting on David Brooks’ “Lord of the Memes”, from the 7 August edition of the New York Times
I know David Brooks can’t really be serious when he says things like this, but this is at least the second grand pronouncement this week* and it’s getting out of hand:
But on [...]

On the coat-tails of the lament of the death of pub culture, the W.S.J. reminds us of further cultural debasement.

It may be hard to imagine — given our current obsessions with television shows, movies, instant-messaging, Facebook and blogs — but literature was once at the center of American cultural life. In the middle of the 20th century, novels and poems, of varying quality and aspiration, were widely read and widely talked about. And literary [...]

Damn the Internet! Damn it, I say!

Nicholas Carr, in the current Atlantic Monthly writes the follow in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?“.
Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s [...]