Secular Frontier

Previously in This Series: Secular Reflections: Why was Jesus Appearing to Everyone According to Paul? (2/2) Secular Reflections: Why was Jesus Appearing to Everyone According to Paul? (Conclusion) Secular Reflections: Why was Jesus Appearing to Everyone According to Paul? Now, the Transition: Jesus was viewed as a messianic claimant who was specially chosen by God ... Jesus in History: Transition from New Testament Studies to Hebrew Bible Studies (Announcement)

We’ve been thinking about the risen Jesus in Paul as ghost sightings. The concept of ghosts (phantasma in Greek) was well-known in the ancient world. In the gospels, when Jesus walked on water (Matthew 14:26) and when He appeared after His resurrection (Luke 24:37-39), the disciples initially panicked and thought they were seeing a ghost. ... (Conclusion) Secular Reflections: Why was Jesus Appearing to Everyone According to Paul?

As I said last time in a note, a minority of New Testament scholars like Tabor and Carrier think the earliest Christians believed Jesus left his old body of dust behind like shed clothes and received a new spiritual body. It would make sense resurrection wouldn’t mean a resuscitated corpse because what of bodies burnt, ... (2/2) Secular Reflections: Why was Jesus Appearing to Everyone According to Paul?

In 1 Corinthians 15:5–8 (NRSVUE), Paul writes that Jesus appeared to Cephas, the twelve, over 500 believers, James, all the apostles, and finally to Paul himself I’ve noted previously Paul is suggestive of strong ties to stoicism, such as being from the birthplace of the stoic enlightenment Tarsus, his appropriation of the stoic concept of ... Secular Reflections: Why was Jesus Appearing to Everyone According to Paul?

Last Time: Celebrating 100 Years of Martin Heidegger’s “BEING AND TIME” (Dedicated to Edmund Husserl April 8, 1926) Now the Conclusion For those of you intellectually impatient like me, here’s the gist: Preamble: Paul was an apocalyptic Jew who thought the end times were underway as he saw the resurrected Jesus as the “first fruits” ... Summary of my Last Long Blog Post: Celebrating 100 Years of Martin Heidegger’s “BEING AND TIME” (Dedicated to Edmund Husserl April 8, 1926)

                                              PREVIOUSLY IN THIS SERIES: (INDEX) Education, Philosophy, Religion: The Dog Days of Summer Posts ANNOUNCEMENT: My 50th Birthday is Next Month and Starting August 7th I’ll be Blogging About and Celebrating the 100 Years Centenary of Martin Heidegger’s Gift of “Being and Time!” (Part 2/2) Announcement About My Upcoming Series of Posts Celebrating 100 ... Celebrating 100 Years of Martin Heidegger’s “BEING AND TIME” (Dedicated to Edmund Husserl April 8, 1926)

Previously: ANNOUNCEMENT: My 50th Birthday is Next Month and Starting August 7th I’ll be Blogging About and Celebrating the 100 Years Centenary of Martin Heidegger’s Gift of “Being and Time!” Now: I hope my last post whetted your appetite about the upcoming series on Heidegger’s “Being and Time.” But what is that? Renowned Philosopher Martin ... (Part 2/2) Announcement About My Upcoming Series of Posts Celebrating 100 Years of Heidegger’s “Being and Time” Beginning August 7

PREVIOUSLY (INDEX) Education, Philosophy, Religion: The Dog Days of Summer Posts NOW: “Faith has no place in thought (Martin Heidegger, ‘Anaximander’s Saying,’ in Off the Beaten Track, 280).” What follows are some background ideas and contexts that may be helpful in thinking about Heidegger’s Being and Time. “Being” is a concept we always have with ... ANNOUNCEMENT: My 50th Birthday is Next Month and Starting August 7th I’ll be Blogging About and Celebrating the 100 Years Centenary of Martin Heidegger’s Gift of “Being and Time!”

PREVIOUSLY: Have a Great and Reflective Summer! Celebrating New Teachers: Education and Metaphysics with Squaring and Circling (2/2) Celebrating New Teachers: The Interview What I’m Watching: Jacob Berman and Dr. Robert M. Price on the Parousia (2/2) What I’m Watching: Jacob Berman and Dr. Robert M. Price on the Parousia Most Adults’ Beliefs about Humanity ... (INDEX) Education, Philosophy, Religion: The Dog Days of Summer Posts

I’m still on vacation from regularly posting on the blog, but… In honor of my American friends, I like to celebrate the United States with an English word: “Thing.”  I usually work with translations of various languages like German, French, Latin and Greek, but today let’s meditate on my native language I find it remarkable ... Happy Secular 4th of July to my American Friends!

July 1st is a nationwide statutory holiday in Canada, officially known as Canada Day. It celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation and is a paid day off for eligible employees across all provinces and territories. It is widely celebrated with outdoor events, parades, community gatherings, and fireworks across the country

If you’d like to see more by me, here is my Author’s Page at The Secular Web. (Darth Harley, Bark Lord of the Sith and curator of Secular Web Kids)

This is a great topic and I encourage reading Price’s article on it HERE. Here are some thoughts the video occasioned on the crucifixion. Substitutionary atonement is basically the idea that God is mad at sin and so to prevent his wrath a sacrifice must be offered, as offerings please God (e.g., the aroma of ... What I’m Watching: Jacob Berman and Dr. Robert M. Price on Christian Writers Rewriting the Old Testament to Create Stories About Jesus

From 2026 American Worldview Inventory – Report #4: Dr. George Barna, the Director of Research at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, explained that the purpose of the Center’s annual worldview research is to help parents, church leaders, and Christian school educators identify areas of belief and behavior where Christians are missing the ... Most Adults’ Beliefs about Humanity and the Supernatural Stray from Biblical Teaching

Last Time: What I’m Watching: Jacob Berman and Dr. Robert M. Price on the Parousia Now, the conclusion In some ways the parousia in the New Testament is not just a future eschaton but a current reality, such as “Christ in You” in Paul’s letters. Plato in the Phaedo uses the word parousia to describe ... (2/2) What I’m Watching: Jacob Berman and Dr. Robert M. Price on the Parousia

I’ve been watching some videos in my free time and would like to share some thoughts occasioned by this one. Does Jesus say the kingdom is within, even in the hearts of the hard hearted pharisees? The Old Testament says the heart is corrupt beyond all things, but God will renew their hearts. Paul talks ... What I’m Watching: Jacob Berman and Dr. Robert M. Price on the Parousia

Last Time: Celebrating New Teachers: Education and Metaphysics with Squaring and Circling Now the conclusion: I’m still on vacation here at the blog, but I wanted to do a part 2 for the last post.  While last time I talked about some ideas for new teachers, I thought I might conclude this two-part series with ... (2/2) Celebrating New Teachers: The Interview

* (INTRODUCTION) Examples of Organizing Thinking with the Magic of 4s (Children Playing 4-Square at Recess) NEXT TIME: (2/2) Celebrating New Teachers: The Interview BUT FIRST: I’ve been on vacation from blogging until the Fall, but I encountered some very enthusiastic education students from the local university recently who had a table event at a ... Celebrating New Teachers: Education and Metaphysics with Squaring and Circling

I think I finally got all the typos in my last blog post, lol! We were thinking about fourfold rubrics of criteria used to teach, assess/evaluate.  In the history of Metaphysics from Plato to Heidegger, you have the basic idea that the really real is not the “present” thing in front of you (me on ... Have a Great and Reflective Summer!

The Fourfold Cord vs The Threefold Cord “And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Eccl 4:12) I talked a little the last few times about the threefold cord (I might have misspelled as “chord” a few times, but that’s okay I’m musical, lol), and ... (Part 6) The Fourfold Cord vs The Threefold Cord: My thoughts on Derrida’s “Interpretations at War Kant, the Jew, the German”

I keep coming back to the example / exemplar of houseness and threefold appearing “as” (mansion as houseness incarnate, houseness being merely present in the average house, and deficient in the dilapidated shack).  Moreover, there is the twofold deconstructive reversal where the mansion may appear gawdy to the next person, or the shack quaint/rustic.  But ... (Part 5) My thoughts on Derrida’s “Interpretations at War Kant, the Jew, the German”

We are trying to determine with Derrida what it means that Cohen was an exemplar of the Jewish-German spirit incarnated in the figure of Kant.  In order to think this let’s go back a little to the Apostle Paul. Debating the dates and authenticity of the Pauline letters is very difficult.  Seven are generally considered ... (Part 4) My thoughts on Derrida’s “Interpretations at War Kant, the Jew, the German”

We’ve been thinking with Derrida about examples and exemplars, where traditionally the exemplar is the really real (e.g., true friend), while the example is deficient in relation to it (just a friend).  Thought holistically, the missing third term here is a “bad friend.” The error that Derrida notes is our tendency to see the exemplar/example ... (Part 3) Threes and My thoughts on Derrida’s “Interpretations at War Kant, the Jew, the German”

I’ve been writing a lot about threes, like how the threefold degrees of houseness (mansion, average house, dilapidated shack) gives us a clear picture of the concept In that vein of threes, we might also see how the “threefold cord” is a metaphor for strength through unity and partnership. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says “And though one ... (Part 2) Threes and My thoughts on Derrida’s “Interpretations at War Kant, the Jew, the German”

“In order to understand, Heidegger says, one must see phenomenologically. He thus invites us to the first exercise of phenomenological “kindergarten.” To tear apart [zer-reissen] means: to tear into two parts, to separate: to make two out of one. If a sock is torn, then the sock is no longer present-at-hand—but note: precisely not as ... (Part 1) My thoughts on Derrida’s “Interpretations at War Kant, the Jew, the German”

1 Philosophy and Mysticism There is a profound connection between Heidegger and Christian mysticism. Heidegger stresses the passivity and receptivity of thought with the “Es gibt.” For example, we may struggle in futility all night when suddenly the solution “comes to us.” Likewise, we may struggle for days trying to remember a favorite song when ... My Thoughts on Derrida’s Des Tours de Babel  (In French, 1980; in English, 1985)

If Heidegger is playful, creating puzzles for his readers such as introducing concepts that are not clarified until hundreds of pages later or in other texts entirely, Derrida is one of the most tangential, deferring writers you will meet.  I imagine the late Derrida reincarnated as a watchdog distracted and chasing a squirrel into a ... My Thoughts on Derrida’s Faith and Knowledge The Two Sources of “Religion” at the Limits of Reason Alone