There is no time more spiritually perilous than when you get what you want. In bad times you can more easily turn to God as the world is not offering you anything, but when the world does offer you something, whether that be money, fame, power or even the kind of political success that you believe will make the world ...

The Litmus Tests to which I so often refer on this blog, are a mixture of old and new - they are continually being added-to.

I first conceptualized them in 2020 in reference to the Birdemic and Peck, which were added onto much longer established Totalitarian Establishment strategies - such as pacifism, socialism, ...

Classical theology's greatest achievement?

Liberating men from freedom.

Note added: I'm making a line of t-shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with the catchy phrase, "Classical theism, freeing men from freedom since 200 AD!"

These will be among the first items for sale on my soon to be launched Romantic ...

I recently encountered a blog post that (correctly) warned Christians against eagerly forming alliances with secular right-wing/alt-right types (sorry, I can’t recall where I read the post).

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I am of the same view; however, the post in question then promoted the cultivation of Christian alliances to ...

I have often recommended aphoristic writers.

And I have (at least since I began regular blogging in 2010 - a year or two after I became a Christian) myself developed an aphoristic style of writing (as may be evident by comparing my earlier writing).

So, I need no persuading of the virtues of aphorism.

However ...

Yesterday I bought and started reading the Kindle edition of Whitley Strieber’s latest book, The Fourth Mind. On page 47, he criticizes those who think of Grays as biological robots:

When we call them names like “biorobots” what we are really saying is that we don’t think that it’s necessary, or even ...

There is, for a month, what superficially appears to be a resurgence of Secular Right "common sense" politics from the USA (i.e. a politics rhetorically rooted in national economic and societal self-interest); and this is depicted, by some of its supporters, as being the first step in a rebuilding of Christendom; - ...

If you have ever experienced real thinking on a subject, you will know that this rare and relatively brief activity is qualitatively different from thinking-about the same thing.

Once you have actually thought on a matter, you can recognize when others have not - but are merely parroting on that subject. And you ...

Traditional/conventional Christianity envisages man as a creature existing within God’s being. Existing outside of, beyond, or sans God’s being—inside Creation or sans Creation—is a metaphysical impossibility because nothing can exist outside of, beyond, or sans the omni-God.

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As a ...

One of the ideas of JRR Tolkien that seems to have influence far beyond the scope of his works, is that of the Northern idea of courage without hope. "Northern", especially in terms of the Norse culture of Scandinavia (including Iceland), and also the broader Germanic culture, including Anglo-Saxon England.

It ...

How do you get to Heaven? It's very simple. Here's how. You must love the Creator more than anything in creation, including yourself. This is the only spiritual path that really counts, and the reason it does is because Heaven is a place of love but real love which is founded in love of God not one of the many ...

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

~ Isaiah 55:12*

my ascent into madness is going well, thanks for asking

it's also unforgettable if no one remembers it in the ...

All Christians believe that God is Good and loves us.

But what does this actually mean?

What does it mean to be Good?

In particular; is Good a matter of preference merely, as modern materialistic ideology would have it. Are Good and evil "relative" and interchangeable?

What this "relativism" of values seems to ...

The insight that "power corrupts" (with or without the addendum "and absolute power corrupts absolutely") was an insight that emerged only from the end of the nineteenth century - as Tom Shippey notes in his analysis of the subject in JRR Tolkien: author of the century.

In ancient and medieval times, power was not ...

For the past week or so, my dreams have had a peculiar character. Each night, a single sentence (different each night, I think) is repeated again and again, with an accompanying visual display that is not participatory like an ordinary dream, While dreaming, I understand that the sentence is something I have to learn, ...

Who will be the Antichrist? - by Metropolitan Agafangel (25th January 2025)

The Antichrist will be accepted first by those who are waiting for him - under one form or another and for one reason or another. There are many such people who are waiting, but they all wait differently...

The question is where, in what ...

The conception of the Absolute is the extreme limit of objectivizing of abstract thought.

​In the Absolute there are no signs whatever of existence, no signs of life. The Absolute belongs not so much to religious revelation as to religious philosophy and theology. It is a product of thought.

The abstract ...

It seems like, even when life is going well, we cannot experience it at the best and highest level "on demand".

We sometimes experience the "romance" of this-life, a magical moment, or even magical hours and days; but this state does not become continuous - nor can we have this magic whenever we want it, nor even ...

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real christianity has never been tried, cause no one wants to be the judge

the 'humor in the gospels' versus 'no humor in the gospels' divide is itself very humorous. or is it

ecclesiastes is the question, songs is the answer

it's all a show, but don't tell

her name was christie, christie anity, and no man ...

Has the world become better or worse since the time of Jesus? The question is worth raising because people have believed and said both.

Some people assume that Jesus made the world better, and that things were improved by the life, death, resurrection of Jesus.

They assume especially that Christian societies are ...

Are people truly aware of the vast and ever-widening chasm between the financial economy and the real economy?

On the one side, we have veritable tidal waves of “money” sloshing all about the world driving markets to or close to all-time highs and inflating asset bubbles of every flavor and variety.

On ...

I know someone who lives in a state of chaos with nothing put away or even thrown away, and stuff scattered everywhere. She claims this is the sign of a creative person. I know someone else who is obsessive about order and must have everything in its proper place. It causes him actual discomfort to experience mess ...

a review of School of Breaking, by independent author Alesya Grigorovitch.

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The beginning of the book is quite whimsical and light hearted. Emile’s nostalgia for the small town she grew up in, and the contrast with the big city, first, and the strange school, second, was very well described ...

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By Alan Lee

Over at The Notion Club Papers blog, I discuss the September 1914 draft of JRR Tolkien's Earendil poem; which I regard as his first successful poem, and which also (and by no coincidence) is concerned with his powerful and astonishingly creative response to the Anglo-Saxon word ...

The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star First version - dated 24 September 1914 JRR Tolkien was 22 years old.

Éarendel sprang up from the Ocean's cupIn the gloom of the mid-world's rim; From the door of Night as a ray of light Leapt over the twilight brim, And launching his bark like a silver spark From the ...

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Gustave Moreau, La fille de Jared dansant devant Akish (1876)

1. The dancing daughter of Jared

Here's a tale of Jaredite devilry from the Book of Ether. See if it reminds you of anything:And it came to pass that he begat Omer, and Omer reigned in his stead. And Omer begat Jared; and Jared begat ...

Regular readers may recall how I got three chicks in one day in August last year. Sadly, one of those chicks perished within days, but the other two have grown into strapping young roosters. Yes, roosters.

I now have to deal with three cocks instead of one.

Richie Ricardo, the original patriarch of the run, ...

My new collection of aphorisms, Small Talk, is now available. Ebook versions can be downloaded for free here. If you prefer a physical copy, you can go here and Lulu Press will make one just for you.

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This is a work of nonsense, meant to be used only for divination. Any resemblance to actual ...

I think most Christians, but perhaps especially Protestants, have experienced doubts about the role of The Bible in their faith.

On the one hand, it seems to be the core evidence concerning Jesus Christ's life, work and his teachings. On the other hand; it also seems intrinsically unsatisfactory for so much to hinge ...

Rambling sync-posts are back!

I woke up Saturday morning with the name Dinderblob in my head for no apparent reason, perhaps the echo of a forgotten dream. I recognized it as the name of one of the gods imprisoned inside a mountain in The Tinleys and, seeing no relevance to anything, filed it away.

In the morning, I ...

As I suggested a month ago* - I feel sure that pseudo-radicalism of the new US Presidential administration is merely a move in a within-Establishment civil war. The "anti-woke Right" commentators who are deliriously cheerleading the new government, and apparently investing their expectations and hopes in its success; ...