Bruce Ellis Benson‘s engagement with Dan Siedell’s God in the Gallery is also now up at the Church and Postmodern Culture blog.

OMGEES, this “No Pets Clause” post on Emails From Crazy People had me laughing very loudly this morning while I was eating my breakfast.  Thanks Jenn, for sending that along.

Second, I have begun a series of posts on Kierkegaard and Socrates over on Cynthia Nielsen’s Per Caritatem blog. The first post highlights Socrates’ importance for Kierkegaard at the end of his life, and the second post delves a bit into Kierkegaard’s “Sophistical” situation vis-à-vis the Danish Hegelian Christians of Copenhagen. I should have a third post up soon.

BBC Radio Ulster: Sunday Sequence with William Crawley

[Note: There's a chance that the BBC iPlayer may not work outside the UK, my apologies, although if you Google around a bit, there may be ways around this.]

Paul Draper has a very good and critical review of Naturalism, which is written by Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro (Interventions series).  The final paragraph:

Although [Goetz and Taliaferro]‘s assessment of naturalism is, in my opinion, far from complete, I would highly recommend the book to philosophy students at all levels. It would be an ideal text for a course in metaphysics or philosophy of mind or even philosophy of religion. For not only is it a very short book, which increases the likelihood that students would actually read it, but it is full of arguments that are rigorous, clear, and free of technical jargon. In addition to being accessible, these arguments provide excellent models for students to imitate in their own philosophical writing. I would also strongly recommend the book to professional philosophers, especially to naturalists. For the book is an excellent reminder that, while naturalism is unquestioned by most philosophers, there remains serious and all too often unanswered opposition to it, and the problems it faces are deep and difficult.

Not a bad book cover, either, eh?

David Burrell has a review of Michael Allen Gillespie’s newest book entitled The Theological Origins of Modernity.  The book sounds rather disappointing on Burrell’s take.  Which reminds me: I still need to finish Gillespie’s earlier work, which I’ve been told by people who have read both, is quite a bit better.  Oh here I go, getting all ‘indie’ on genealogical takes on philosophy and theology, oy.

In other news, it’s 4:30pm and the sun set about an hour ago.  I’m definitely not anywhere used to that.

Meanwhile, this book is up on the MIT Press website now: The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?  It’s a conversation between Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank (ed. Creston Davis).  [via]

• Over at The Hog’s Head blog, it is Lovecraft month, and Dr. Amy Sturgis has a post which includes a really cool virtual tour of a bunch of the sites in Lovecraft’s hometown, among other things such as links to some good essays and some funny quotations about Lovecraft and his influence.  E.g., “Lovecraft is a resonating wave. He’s rock and roll.” – Nail Gaiman.
• The latest Unger Report: “Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin accused Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama of hanging out with terrorists. Just how does a busy candidate find the time for terrorist pals these days?”
• Make-Believe Maverick: A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty.  Bonus silly linkage: A couple of embarrassing misspellings of the word, one, two. (yipes)
• Damn it feels good to be a banksta
  
• “Spinoza’s Anti-Modernity” by Antonio Negri.  Negri’s particular reading of Spinoza was suggested to us by Michael Mack in our Aesthetics module as some “fun” and “mad” reading to give us a recent appropriation of Spinozist thought.  A very interesting read, for sure.

  The relevance for the module lies in the following: “Spinoza’s first reception within Romanticism was thus an aesthetic reception, a perception of motion and perfection, of dynamism and forms.  And it remained such, even when the general frame and the particular components of Romanticism were subjected to the labor of philosphical critique.  Fichte, the real philosophical hero of Romanticism [my note: just ask Schlegel!], considered both Spinoza’s and Kant’s systems to be ‘perfectly coherent,’ in the incessant ontological movement of the I.”

  Most interesting conclusion regarding Spinoza contra Hegel: “[I]n Spinoza’s substance Hegel (1) recognizes the capacity of representing oneself as the boundless horizon of the real, as the presence of being in general; (2) he confirms the immediate and insoluble aesthetic power of Spinoza’s substance, by insisting on its “in itself” character; (3) he attributes to Spinoza’s substance a fundamental inability to fulfill itself in Wirklichkeit, that is, to resolve itself in the dialectical dimension of the reconciliation of the real.  This means that for Hegel the Spinozist conception of being is Romantic, but for that very reason, unmodern.  Without Spinoza it is impossible to philosophize, but outside of dialectics it is impossible to be modern.  Modernity is the peace of the real, it is the fulfillment of history.  Spinoza’s being and its power are incapable of providing us with this result.”  Negri affirms this Spinozist incapability to ultimately be modern.

• Part 3 of Ron Kuiper’s interview with Charles Taylor in The Other Journal: “Accommodation, Islamophobia, and the Politics of Mobilization: An Interview with Charles Taylor.”  It ends in a near endorsement, I think?
• Kierkegaard and the Common Man, by Jørgen Bukdahl (trans. Bruce H. Kirmmse).  This was recommended by my friend Mike, and it’s excellent so far.  I think it would go great alongside Jon Stewart’s Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered for the historical Danish stuff.  –no, not that, Jon Stewart.

• The Lost Postcast with Jay & Jack: “Save Log-Carrying Guy!”
• Jedi Gym.  Just watch.
  
• Preparing the Battlefield, by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker.  Hersh’s latest on Bush and Co’s intent to go to war with Iran.  Hersh’s interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air can be listened to here.
• From the Archives: Radical Orthodoxy and the Church: A Roundtable Discussion (via).  This was a roundtable discussion from the 2003 Reformed Tradition and Radical Orthodoxy conference.  It wasn’t included in the book, but Jamie Smith has provided it here.
• From Bruce Ellis Benson, a couple of lists of secondary resources on Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.  Benson also has a recent book on Nietzsche entitled Pious Nietzsche: Decadence and Dionysian Faith.
• Okay, I think I totally love puzzle games.  Take this one, for instance: Ancient Quest of Saqqarah.  If you’ve been following me at all on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been playing this one this week.  I am waiting a bit to play Puzzle Quest because I’ve heard it’s just so damn good.
• Generous Orthodoxy Thinktank has shut down.  I had a lot of helpful conversations on there back in the day.
• Hauerwas to vote for Obama (via).  Also see “Cocktail Party” links on this and related topics on Lee’s post here (note: the cocktail party happened before Jonathan linked to the Hauerwas-to-vote-for-Obama link).
• DJW over at Ipsum Esse has been posting some helpful commentary on Francesca Murphy’s recent God Is Not a Story, high-lighting Murphy’s critiques of what she calls the “grammatical Thomists” (post 1, post 2, post3).
• I can’t really draw, but I absolutely love Skineart.com.