Consider all. Test All. Hold on to the good.

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Truth Hidden when not Sought After

John Henry Newman, "Sermon XIII: Truth Hidden when not Sought After", delivered October 24, 1830, in Parochial and Plain Sermons (Longmans, Green, and Co.: 1891).
Go John Henry Newman preaches that religious truth cannot simply be passively received; it must be actively pursued and sincerely desired or it will remain obscure and inaccessible. He emphasizes that truth is complex, dispersed across history, and requires persistent effort, humility, and the willingness to change one’s life and habits to apprehend it. Newman also warns that without such seeking, people become susceptible to falsehoods and superficial beliefs, turning away from the transformative power of real truth. Ultimately, Newman insists that a living witness — someone who embodies truth in action — has far greater persuasive power than eloquent arguments alone, as truth is realized and made effective through personal integrity and lived example.

Undefining Sex and Sowing Chaos with Edge Cases

Nathan Jacobson
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Some things are this, and others are that. Some things are not like the others. We learn this. We know this. We depend upon our ability to discriminate between this and that. In a chaotic world, all is undefined and undifferentiated. Skeptics, subjectivists, and other agents of chaos are wont to undo that fundamental childhood skill of discriminating between spheres and triangles, lions and tigers, and boys and girls. If we are able to measure and cut reality along its seams, the skeptic’s epistemological pessimism is defeated. The subjectivist’s world-making is constrained. Today, for those who want to transcend our innate sexes, fuzzying the lines between male and female is the order of the day. The strategy goes like this. Instead of working from clear cases to understanding edge cases, the chaos agent argues from edge cases to deny there is any order or categories at all. Science News offers a typical example: “Biological Sex Is Not as Simple as Male or Female”. Surveying a variety of developmental sexual disorders and anomalies, Nathan Lents provides the conclusion: “These are not hard categories with clear definitions.”

Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence?

Henry F. Schaefer (Apollos Trust: 2003), 202 pages.
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Professor Henry F. (Fritz) Schaefer is one of the most distinguised physical scientists in the world. The U.S. News and World Report cover story of December 23, 1991 speculated that Professor Schaefer is a “five time nominee for the Nobel Prize. “He has received five of the most prestigious awards of the American Chemical Society, as well as the most highly esteemed award (the Centenary Medal) given to a non-British subject by London’s Royal Society of Chemistry. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Moreover, his general interest lectures on science and religion have riveted large audiences in nearly all the major universities in the U.S.A. and in Beijing, Berlin, Budapest, Calcutta, Cape Town, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Paris, Prague, Sarajevo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sofia, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Tokyo, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zurich. In the present book, Dr. Schaefer’s university lectures have been expanded to full length essays. Thus we have a first-hand account of the lively current science/Christianity discussions by one of the major participants. Finally, the present book describes why and how Dr. Schaefer became a Christian as a young professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. Throughout, the books retains the highly personal character of the university lectures, general respect for those with whom the author disagrees, and a delightful sense of humor.

Alexis De Tocqueville on Despotism

Alexis De Tocqueville, “What Sort Of Despotism Democratic Nations Have To Fear”, Democracy In America, Chapter VI (1835). At Project Gutenberg.
Go The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided: men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

Allen Birchler on the Rhetoric of William Jennings Bryan

Allen Birchler, “The Anti-Evolutionary Beliefs of William Jennings Bryan,” Nebraska History 54 (1973): 545 – 559.
Go Bryan was very skilled in the use of the English language. Even on the cold pages of print over a quarter of a century later the pathos, humor, and sparkle of Bryan are not lost. For example, as Bryan would tell the story of the decline and fall of Darwin from grace it took on the pathos of a Greek tragedy. It was the story of the devout young Christian who had implicit faith in the infallibility of the Scriptures, but because he became involved in the theory of evolution, fell from grace, and died an embittered old man.

Christians, Don’t Question Authority

Nathan Jacobson, A Critical Review of QAnon, Chaos, and the Cross, edited by Michael W. Austin and Gregory L. Bock
Go In the face of a huge loss of faith in our leaders, Michael W. Austin and Gregory L. Bock recruited a couple dozen evangelical professors to exhort naysayers in the pews to steer clear of "conspiracy theories" and dissenting opinions. Apart from a lot of generic epistemological and conversational advice, QAnon, Chaos, and the Cross manages to learn and teach the wrong lesson from the early twenties. Captive to an elitist and partisan bent, the book fails to wonder why there has been such a loss of faith in authority. Worse, on the whole, the book discourages average Christians from “doing their own research” and questioning government sanctioned experts.

Jeff Yang on a Living, Breathing Constitution

Jeff Yang, "Citizenship Must Remain Our Birthright" (January 29, 2025).
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The vulnerability of birthright citizenship lies in the same thing that allows the U.S. Constitution to live and breathe and stay relevant to a changing world: textual economy. Along with the rest of the Constitution and its amendments, the 14th was deliberate with its sparse language and a lack of examples or contextual framing, in order to put exact interpretation in the hands of future generations.

Metaethics: A Short Companion

David A. Horner and J.P. Moreland (B&H Academic: September 1, 2024) Essentials in Christian Ethics
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The study of ethics is primarily associated with questions of morality: “good” and “bad,” “right” and “wrong.” The field of metaethics asks about what we mean by terms like “good” or “right,” and whether they represent real features of the world. 

In Metaethics: A Short Companion, David A. Horner and J. P. Moreland provide a primer on how to think about questions surrounding the concept of morality — its nature, status, grounding, underlying presuppositions, and philosophical commitments. From a stance rooted in moral realism, Horner and Moreland explore and evaluate the major metaethical positions on offer in the field, including expressivism, error theory, relativism, constructivism, ethical naturalism, and ethical nonnaturalism. They conclude by arguing for the rationality of a Christian worldview as a guiding metaethical position. 

The study of metaethics equips Christians to think deeply about the nature of reality, knowledge, truth, and morality. Metaethics: A Short Companion offers a clear and concise introduction to the key concepts and debates in metaethics, providing readers with a foundation for reflecting on their own ethical beliefs and practices.

The Essentials in Christian Ethics series, edited by C. Ben Mitchell and Jason Thacker, is designed to illuminate the richness and centrality of ethics to all of the Christian life. The series consists of short, introductory volumes written by renowned scholars in the fields of ethics, theology, and philosophy. Each volume explores a crucial element of Christian ethical reflection, approaching the subject from within the broader Protestant moral tradition.

Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships? 

Rebecca McLaughlin (The Good Book Company: May 1, 2004), 128 pages.
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You may have heard the claim that the Bible, when read correctly, is not against believers entering monogamous, faithful same-sex relationships. The arguments sound quite compelling.” Jesus never talked about same-sex relationships.” “Paul was only condemning exploitative relationships, not consensual ones.” “We don’t keep the Old Testament food laws, so why would we keep the ones on same-sex sex?” “If God is love, he can’t be against relationships of love.” And more. Have Christians through the ages just been getting this one wrong?

Carl Trueman on Evacuating the Definition of Marriage

Carl R. Trueman, “Why Most Anglican Clergymen Now Approve of Gay Marriage — And What This Means for the Future of the Church”, First Things (September 7, 2023).
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Gay marriage does not simply involve a minor expansion of the traditional concept. There was a time when gay writers such as Andrew Sullivan argued that allowing same-sex marriages would simply permit gay people to be part of a conservative institution. It is now clear that gay marriage did not merely expand the set of those considered to be married, but fundamentally evacuated marriage of meaning — or, more accurately, exposed the fact that it had already been fundamentally evacuated of meaning by the ready acceptance of no-fault divorce. It is no longer a unique relationship whose stability is important for its normative ends, but little more than a sentimental bond that only has to last for as long as it meets the emotional needs of the parties involved.