Category: Philosophy
Natural Theology from a Former Atheist: A Book Review of Anthony Flew’s “There is a God” Part I
Just about any Christian who is at all familiar with apologetics has probably heard of the famous Socratic Club. Founded in 1941 at Oxford University, the Socratic Club was an open forum for debates b... Read More
Ethnographic Filmmaking and the Scientific Study of Religion
What happens when a social scientist uses a camera as a tool in ethnographic fieldwork? For a decade prior to pursuing graduate school, I worked as a composer, film editor and documentary filmmaker. W... Read More
Should Civil and Church Marriage be Separated?
Some Christians have responded to the court's recent ruling in favor of same-sex marriage by calling for Christians to totally separate 'civil' marriage from 'church' marriage. But this position is to... Read More
Love and Buddhism: The Parallel and Paradox by Jai Mirchandani
In common Hindi parlance, there are three words for love: ishq, pyar, and mohabbhat. Perhaps less important is the difference in each one of these terms than is the notion that there are three distinc... Read More
On Taking a Selfie with Pope Francis
Recently I attended an audience with Pope Francis with the International Council of Christians and Jews. It was my second audience, as I had also gained access to the Vatican’s elaborate reception r... Read More
Methodological Challenges to Measuring Transformation
When I set out on my dissertation research, my main question was whether and how interfaith dialogue functions to transform people. I had a hypothesis that people do interfaith dialogue because when d... Read More
Same-Sex Marriage and Slippery Slopes
In his dissent to the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on same-sex marriage, Chief Justice John Roberts offers a familiar 'slippery slope' argument. Slippery slope arguments offer a very narrow picture... Read More
Choice and Safety: Required Ingredients for Interfaith Progress
Classic “contact theory” predicts that diverse societies automatically bring about tolerance. I argued against this idea here when I discussed how proximity generally exacerbates the anxiety of di... Read More