tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54899322011-04-21T13:51:48.366-07:00Newman Nahasnewmannahas@hotmail.comNewmannoreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1071977884567570632003-12-20T19:38:00.000-08:002007-03-20T16:06:43.113-07:00THE RETURN OF THE KING: No, I am not talking about Elvis Presley, but the third Lord of the Rings movie, which I saw today and which I found mesmerizing! It managed to enthrall and entertain while also (I would contend) insightfully exlporing the contours of the human spirit. And speaking of contours, Liv Tyler was brilliant.Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1071938267989598182003-12-20T08:37:00.000-08:002003-12-20T19:28:42.750-08:00FAITH AND REASON: Check out today’s article in the NYT, ‘Reason and Faith, Eternally Bound’. While pretty interesting, like most discussions of ‘faith’ and ‘reason’, the article ends up hardly saying anything really meaningful. And this is because it was never made clear what Mr Rothstein meant by ‘faith’ and ‘reason’. In fact, that is the main problem with most discussions of faith and reason. Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1066647886725692322003-10-20T04:04:00.000-07:002003-10-20T04:12:12.010-07:00Believe it or not, I am off to Buckingham Palace to meet Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II, this evening!
To mark the one hundred year anniversary of the Rhodes Trust, Her Majesty will be receiving all the current Rhodes Scholars for dinner tonight. It is sure to be a most auspicious occasion. I plan to commend Her Majesty on her cameo in Naked Gun, which was surely one of her finest Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1064525859753794482003-09-25T14:37:00.000-07:002003-09-25T14:37:39.373-07:00EDWARD SAID: It brings me great sadness to note the death of the great Edward Said, a man of letters and of action, who deployed his eloquence and vast learning on behalf of many causes, chief among which being that of the dispossessed Palestinian people. I may not have always agreed with what he has had to say. But I’ve always respected how well he could say it, and with what sincerity he Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1063964281557595682003-09-19T02:38:00.000-07:002003-09-23T03:06:11.730-07:00DISCLAIMER: Let me be very clear that whatever thoughts I am offering concerning homosexuality and Christian Ethics are simply my own personal musings. I am not purporting to speak for the Orthodox Church, of which I am a happy member. And as I would like to remain one, I also would like to emphasize that I take the Church's line on moral teaching. I do this because I happen to be convinced that Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1063925438050948632003-09-18T15:50:00.000-07:002003-09-22T14:45:55.023-07:00HOMOSEXUALITY, CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND THE LAW, PART ONE: I get the sense from a lot of my peers that it seems odd (if not downright devious) to many of them that a considerable portion of Christendom disapproves, in no uncertain terms, of the practice of homosexuality. How could so many Christians seriously believe that there is anything wrong with two consenting adults giving physical expression Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1063832139949943542003-09-17T13:55:00.000-07:002003-09-22T08:57:39.053-07:00IMBIBING IRRESPONSIBLY: There are a lot of drinking problems these days. But there is one that really stands out. And it is high time someone asked the important question: Why is it that Antiochian Orthodox women quaff so copiously of the inexhaustible cup of haterade?
I know that a weblog is not really the best place to pose such a recondite puzzle. But, my friends, this is a question that Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1063829703766506592003-09-17T13:15:00.000-07:002003-09-17T14:11:41.103-07:00A very warm welcome to the blogosphere to my good friend, JP Ghobrial, who, in addition to being a fellow Oxonian, I pleased to say, is also a fellow Antiochian.
JP is doing an M.Phil. in Middle Eastern Studies, about (though certainly not limited to) which I am sure he will have much of interest to share. So be sure to check out his weblog, 'where anything is relevant because everything is Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1063544406564645392003-09-14T06:00:00.000-07:002003-09-14T06:08:57.423-07:00TOM FRIEDMAN: Be sure to check out Friedman's OpEd in the NYT today. Erecting this wall (with the boundaries that Israel has in mind) bodes ill for a sustainable Palestinian state, that's for sure. But equally, as Friedman points out, this arrangement also bodes ill for the future of a Jewish state.
Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1062717770353297312003-09-04T16:22:00.000-07:002003-09-05T08:13:04.060-07:00OK, the last few posts have been admittedly rather insubstantial (though I am pleased to have received some not inconsiderable positive feedback (though, oddly, only from guys) for my British weather post).
I have been meaning to post some thoughts on homosexuality and Christian Ethics for some time now, but my current research is keeping me too busy. Obviously, I want to do justice to the Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1062458743374248092003-09-01T16:25:00.000-07:002003-09-15T11:07:41.553-07:00BYZANTINE CHANT is one of my favorite sources of aural edification. I just recently came across a young artist, Petros Gaitanos, from Greece who has put out some absolutely beautiful recordings of Byzantine hymns. Here is a page with clips of him chanting. While we're on the subject of Byzantine chant, here is a link to another one of my favorite chanters, Sister Maria Keyrouz. In fact, if you Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1062458056897803272003-09-01T16:14:00.000-07:002003-09-01T17:15:46.386-07:00THE WEATHER here in England is almost as mercurial and inscrutable as the women in my life. While just a few weeks ago it was over 100 F, today it has dropped into the 50s! [Note: that is not a misogynist or sexist remark. I did not say that it was because they are women that they are mercurial or inscrutable (or both in one case). Nor did I hastily draw any sweeping conclusions about women as Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061919879566710982003-08-26T10:44:00.000-07:002003-08-27T13:20:00.120-07:00SORRY for my hiatus: The Patristics Conference is finally over, with which I was totally occupied last week. But now that it's over, I am rather busy working on a chapter of my D.Phil. (Oxford-speak for Ph.D.). Hopefully, though, later this weak I will get around to expressing some thoughts on homosexuality and Christian Ethics, as I promised I would do last week.
My D.Phil. project, in case Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061424593479934572003-08-20T17:09:00.000-07:002003-08-20T17:29:35.616-07:00THOU SHALT remove thy monument: The saga of an Alabama judge, Roy Moore, who erected a monument of the Ten Commandments in the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court, continues. About a month ago, he was ordered by a federal judge to remove the monument by the 20th of August (today), on the ground that it is a religious display and thus unconstitutional. And he, backed by many supporters, is firmly Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061416184687943662003-08-20T14:49:00.000-07:002003-08-20T15:58:40.170-07:00ABBAS has called for the arrest of the militants who were responsible for another ghastly suicide bombing. That's definitely a good sign -- further evidence that Abbas is a man whom the Israeli government can truly work with.
Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061415150814730402003-08-20T14:32:00.000-07:002003-08-20T15:58:13.196-07:00SORRY for such sparse posting these last few days. The Internation Patristics (Early Christian Literature) Conference here at Oxford has kept me very busy.
Among many other presentations, today I attended a brilliant talk on Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian who died around 215 AD. What is remarkable about Clement (and about a number of the early christian sages) is that he sought Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061247319988992712003-08-18T15:55:00.000-07:002003-08-19T07:34:40.663-07:00CHILLIN WITH ROWAN: The highlight of the first day of the Patristics Conference had to be meeting the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, with whom I even managed to get a picture, thanks to my unabashed friend from Texas, who, to the Archbishop's delight, walked right up to him and engaged him in candid conversation.
Williams struck me as a true gentleman, graceful, gracious and Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061213132160420282003-08-18T06:25:00.000-07:002003-08-18T17:08:51.723-07:002) VIRGIN BIRTH AND MITHRAISM: CH’s second argument (which is also one that Kristof makes, but which I didn’t respond to) proceeds like this. First, it notes that there are stories throughout the world that resemble the Christian story in a number of important respects. Like the Christian story, these other stories, include such themes as divine incarnation, virgin birth and even resurrection. Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061212973719538232003-08-18T06:22:00.000-07:002003-08-19T07:26:51.136-07:001) VIRGIN BIRTH AND FLOOD GATES: Before I head off to the Patristics Conference, there are two important concerns that a very perceptive reader (CH) has raised, to which I must reply.
First, CH is concerned that my defense of the Virgin Birth opens up the flood gates to every manner of crazy belief: I’ll let him speak for himself:
____
I was troubled by your argument, which I think essentiallyNewmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061204285243098072003-08-18T03:58:00.000-07:002003-08-19T07:30:04.340-07:00PATRISTICS CONVENTION: Today marks the beginning of the 14th International Patristics Conference, held at Oxford University every four years. A remarkable number of scholars who study early Christianity will be here for a week presenting short talks on their current research. I will be busy attending it, so I probably won't have too many substantive posts for the next few days, though I do hope Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061101589107044322003-08-16T23:26:00.000-07:002003-08-17T12:42:27.250-07:00VIRGIN BIRTH, TAKE THREE: My point in my first post concerning the role of ‘antecedent philosophical beliefs’ affecting the way we interpret historical evidence was not that all antecedent philosophical beliefs are equal. That would result in the total indeterminacy of history, a view I would not wish to defend. For clearly some antecedent philosophical assumptions are more defensible than othersNewmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061074186847060232003-08-16T15:49:00.000-07:002003-08-16T15:53:26.033-07:00CLARIFICATIONS CONCERNING KRISTOF: I don't know if I made my position entirely clear in the last post. My overarching concern with Kristof's article was that he seemed to assume that 1) withholding belief in evolution and 2) failing to withhold belief in the Virgin Birth are both examples of the troubling irrationality that characterizes American religiosity. What I hope to have shown is that Newmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1061051321565246402003-08-16T09:28:00.000-07:002003-08-16T13:05:17.110-07:00KRISTOF’S provocative OpEd in the NYT today, occasioned by the Feast of the Assumption, is muddled in a number of ways. I agree with Kristof that there is a disturbing trend toward irrational and anti-intellectual religiosity among Americans. However, what he adduces as instances of this trend are poor examples. (Happy Feast day, by the way, to all my Catholic and Orthodox readers!)
First, whenNewmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5489932.post-1060912432452571042003-08-14T18:53:00.000-07:002003-08-14T19:00:00.660-07:00Welcome to my weblog! This is officially my first post. A bit low in the way of substance, sure, but hopefully that'll change soon enough. Newmannoreply@blogger.com