First Word

The title probably scares a lot of movie-browsers off — another (more…)

An essay by Prof Mark A. Noll of Wheaton College in the collection Religion and the American Civil War (Oxford, 1998) outlines the place of the Bible in the American debate on slavery during the years leading up to the Civil War. Noll identifies the dominant view of the Bible on both side of the debate as “Reformed literalist.” Given that view of the Bible, the proslavery side seemed to have the upper hand. The Abolitionists were willing to move toward a “spirit not letter” type of interpretation, but all the orthodox saw this approach as a trajectory toward liberalism. Noll knows that “proslavery” — his term — is wrong, though a high view of the Bible is right; so he explores what might have gone wrong. He examines four alternative hermeneutical traditions that could have led to a different conclusion on slavery, while still holding to a high view of the Bible:(1) the “African American” way of reading the Bible; (2) the Roman Catholic; (3) High-church Lutheranism or Reformed; (4) the non-Southern Reformed, especially Charles Hodge. Only the last named of these had enough of a foothold in America to temper the discussion, but it fell short because of a root inconsistency in the American outlook which compromised the profession of sola scriptura and led to failure to draw a key distinction that would have unraveled the proslavery argument. (more…)

David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is a non-descript middle-aged traveling salesman on a routine road trip through the California steppe, day-dreaming, listening to talk radio, worrying about a tiff with his wife the night before, when he catches up with a big, smoky, mean-looking truck. He passes it, but it then speeds up and passes him. Thus begins an hour and half of a road-rage “duel” between Mann and truck. (more…)

This is a modern cloak and dagger based on a true story. Twenty-five year FBI man Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) is nabbed for spying just before he would have retired. The movie depicts the FBI’s effort to catch him in the act of making a “drop” so that conviction would be certain. (more…)

The plot and message of this movie can be summarized (more…)

Start boning up for next Saturday’s Met broadcast of Tristan (more…)

The following is the first installment of an article on the philosophy of Gottlob Frege. Students of philosophy may find here something of interest.

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The Unanswered Question - Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard Bernstein (1976) is a series on music appreciation that Leonard Bernstein delivered (more…)

Young woman (Anne Hathaway) wants to be a writer but needs (more…)

The attached audio (or better: use this 16 kbps compressed version) is our beginning of a close reading of the early Wittgenstein. (more…)

William F. Buckley has a place in the intellectual history of right- (more…)