More thoughts on Magnifica Humanitas

In the past, I've used this blog to post full-length, fully developed pieces. For a while, I've been wanting to make the shift to also using this blog as a developing ground for my ideas, posting reflections on articles or half-formed arguments. Today's article is in that vein. I've already posted some initial reflections on … Continue reading More thoughts on Magnifica Humanitas →

First Reflections on Magnifica Humanitas

Reading Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, I was pleased to find some arguments very much aligned with some of the directions I've been thinking with regard to AI and Technology. Paragraph 92 cites Pope Francis in critiquing the "technological paradigm" which judges everything in terms of efficiancy: In his Encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis denounced the … Continue reading First Reflections on Magnifica Humanitas →

Wake up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

The character of Fr. Jud was one of the best depictions of a priest or minister that I have ever seen in a movie.

Pope Francis ( 1936-2025)

What always struck me about Francis was his basic, almost Lutheran conviction that the annunciation of the gospel has transformative power and that it is a message that speaks to the deepest human need: "There is nothing more solid, deep and sure than this proclamation." Francis simply believed that communicating the gospel, through gesture, acts of mercy, or the spoken word, has the power to transform in a way that no amount of rules or moralizing ever can.

Chapter 20: Conversions

In this chapter Taylor looks at the phenomenon of conversion in a Secular age, those people who “broke out of the immanent frame” into a larger perspective of Transcendence. These are people who come to recognize—perhaps through a conversion experience or via some other path—that there is more, that the immanent frame is insufficient. Taylor … Continue reading Chapter 20: Conversions →

Hutterites and the Pandemic

I was planing to get this piece published when I first wrote it back in April. When that fell through, I decided to make some changes and repost it here.