Category Archives: Quotes

Love in the Age of ”Like”

427/475

Jonathan Franzen contemplates technology, “liking,” and love in an excellent essay for the New York Times that was adapted from a college commencement speech. Some choice bits: [O]ur technology has become extremely adept at creating products that correspond to our fantasy ideal of an erotic relationship, in which the beloved object asks for nothing and … Read more →

The Efficacy of Reason

416/475

Most would agree that reason is near the top of any sensible list of virtues. But, among those for whom devotion to reason approaches religious fervour, you won’t be hearing wisdom like this: Reason is a very good solvent of nonsense but is not necessarily a very good constructor of sense. The above is from … Read more →

A Biblical Economic Vision

385/475

Drawing heavily on the work of Walter Brueggemann, Bouma-Prediger and Walsh have the following to say about a biblical economic vision: A covenantal/prophetic perspective “holds that the haves and the have-nots are bound in community to each other, that viable life depends upon the legitimate respect, care and maintenance of the have-nots and upon the … Read more →

Dangerous Moral Purity

384/475

It’s hardly news that upper and middle class people tend to view the poor as dirty, chaotic, and even dangerous. Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian Walsh contend that this habitus (set of acquired patterns of thought, behavior, and taste) needs to be understood if we’re to understand the structural barriers faced by homeless people: Insofar as … Read more →

Faith in a Culture of Displacement

383/475

I’ve had Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian Walsh’s Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement sitting on my bookshelf since early fall, but haven’t gotten around to cracking it until now. If the rest of the book is as good as the two paragraphs below, I’ll be kicking myself for waiting so long: Displacement. … Read more →