Being a middle-aged man's attempt to reconcile his faith, philosophy,
and other things he thinks he knows.
and other things he thinks he knows.
About me
Making reasonable assumptions about its length, I am midway through my life's arc. I know more now than I did when I was twenty. One of the things I've learned is that the world is vastly more complex than I had imagined as a young man. I've also discovered that there are deep unities underlying this complexity. A perennial task of philosophy is to find unity in diversity: I've labored at that task for nearly three decades and have made, I think, some progress.
I've also discovered that the more you come to know, the more you know that there's so much more to know. Like the gold in Gringotts' vaults, the more things your mind touches, the more things there will be for it to touch. But I must respectfully disagree with these words from Ecclesiastes: "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief." I would rather be like those who, having passed through the Stable Door into Aslan's Country, heed the call to go "further up and further in."
Making reasonable assumptions about its length, I am midway through my life's arc. I know more now than I did when I was twenty. One of the things I've learned is that the world is vastly more complex than I had imagined as a young man. I've also discovered that there are deep unities underlying this complexity. A perennial task of philosophy is to find unity in diversity: I've labored at that task for nearly three decades and have made, I think, some progress.
I've also discovered that the more you come to know, the more you know that there's so much more to know. Like the gold in Gringotts' vaults, the more things your mind touches, the more things there will be for it to touch. But I must respectfully disagree with these words from Ecclesiastes: "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief." I would rather be like those who, having passed through the Stable Door into Aslan's Country, heed the call to go "further up and further in."
Though descriptions are as likely to mislead as to they are to inform, it is necessary, I suppose, to give some of myself: I am from the Deep South yet now live in the Mid-Atlantic. I'm proud of my Southern heritage though saddened by its past sins and frustrated by its present insularity. I grew up in fundamentalist Christianity. I now endeavor to be "merely Christian," though I confess that discovering what that actually means will be a lifelong project.
Until a few years ago, I fell squarely within the political demographic white, conservative, evangelical Christian. I retain my ethnicity, of course; so too my core faith. The label “evangelical” is, however, one that I’ve become increasingly embarrassed by. There’s little good news in the theology and politics of many prominent “evangelical” leaders. And if the polls are correct as to whom “evangelicals” as a collective vote for, then count me out.
With that said, the distinctives that have characterized evangelicals historically -- a high regard for Scripture, a purposeful piety, an active concern for others’ well-being in soul and body -- these seem as good and necessary now as ever. Indeed, inasmuch as I hold to the ancient Creeds of the Church, I am quite conservative in my theology proper. Nevertheless, given my “liberal” views on various headline topics (abortion and human sexuality, for example), I perhaps fall within that smallish group called Progressive Evangelicals.
Politically, I grew up a conservative’s conservative. Ronald Reagan was my President as a child and youth. But the conservativism I cut my teeth on had a human warmth to it, a genuine desire to make the world a better place. And in my little circle it was tempered by an understanding of the Gospel that saw everyone as a sinner and in need of God’s love. One which recognized that, ultimately, only the Spirit of God can change the human heart. I find little of these things in most of what goes by “conservative” nowadays.
It took me until I was forty before I could move past my conservative roots and vote for a Democrat. But the Republican Party was headed Rightward, while I was moving Leftward, such that one day I woke to find myself a member of my local Democratic Committee. (The election of 2016 and its aftermath turbo-charged my transition.) So, in common parlance I now count as a “liberal” or “progressive.”
These things said, I still consider myself a centrist relative to the spectrum of all political positions, as compared to the warped and shrunken American one. Speaking precisely, politically, I’m what’s known as a social democrat: I hold to classical liberalism (“libertarianism” in American parlance) in terms of economics and the place of the state vis-à-vis the individual, while also believing that the government has an important role in advancing a society’s flourishing and in serving as the ultimate social safety net. My political heroes are Hamilton, Lincoln, and the Roosevelts.
Until a few years ago, I fell squarely within the political demographic white, conservative, evangelical Christian. I retain my ethnicity, of course; so too my core faith. The label “evangelical” is, however, one that I’ve become increasingly embarrassed by. There’s little good news in the theology and politics of many prominent “evangelical” leaders. And if the polls are correct as to whom “evangelicals” as a collective vote for, then count me out.
With that said, the distinctives that have characterized evangelicals historically -- a high regard for Scripture, a purposeful piety, an active concern for others’ well-being in soul and body -- these seem as good and necessary now as ever. Indeed, inasmuch as I hold to the ancient Creeds of the Church, I am quite conservative in my theology proper. Nevertheless, given my “liberal” views on various headline topics (abortion and human sexuality, for example), I perhaps fall within that smallish group called Progressive Evangelicals.
Politically, I grew up a conservative’s conservative. Ronald Reagan was my President as a child and youth. But the conservativism I cut my teeth on had a human warmth to it, a genuine desire to make the world a better place. And in my little circle it was tempered by an understanding of the Gospel that saw everyone as a sinner and in need of God’s love. One which recognized that, ultimately, only the Spirit of God can change the human heart. I find little of these things in most of what goes by “conservative” nowadays.
It took me until I was forty before I could move past my conservative roots and vote for a Democrat. But the Republican Party was headed Rightward, while I was moving Leftward, such that one day I woke to find myself a member of my local Democratic Committee. (The election of 2016 and its aftermath turbo-charged my transition.) So, in common parlance I now count as a “liberal” or “progressive.”
These things said, I still consider myself a centrist relative to the spectrum of all political positions, as compared to the warped and shrunken American one. Speaking precisely, politically, I’m what’s known as a social democrat: I hold to classical liberalism (“libertarianism” in American parlance) in terms of economics and the place of the state vis-à-vis the individual, while also believing that the government has an important role in advancing a society’s flourishing and in serving as the ultimate social safety net. My political heroes are Hamilton, Lincoln, and the Roosevelts.
I am by nature an intensely reflective person. The life of the mind has thus always been vital to me: the air that I breathe in fact. As a result, I've invested a great deal -- in terms of money, time, effort, and evenings away from my kids -- in my education. My undergraduate degree is in engineering (Georgia Tech). My graduate degrees are in theology and philosophy. I spent three years at a conservative, evangelical seminary (Biola), a time that was lovely and horizon-expanding: I learned so much from so many thoughtful, faith-filled people. Indeed, seminary was a crucial step in my movement from a narrow fundamentalism to something much better.
My subsequent eight years at a public university (Virginia), taking and teaching classes, and writing a dissertation, were excruciatingly hard. Still, they were, as to my intellectual growth, massively significant. I emerged at the end of my graduate studies with a view of the world and an attitude toward it vastly more lucid, more accurate, and more rich than when I began. When I try to summarize what I learned, the best I can do is this: I acquired the tools and the information necessary to see the world as it is, stripped of anything non-essential.
Sensing a need to feed both my family and myself (even while in graduate school), I have worked in business -- that is, outside of academia -- all my adult life. I've been primarily a manager, both of people and projects, hence the cheekiness of my website’s name. I've worked in manufacturing and in construction, in both corporate and institutional settings. I've made consumer products. And I've built laboratories, clinics, and classrooms. Some of my proudest achievements have taken place at work: It's deeply gratifying to see something you helped build be used to make sick people well.
As to home and family, I’m married to a dear woman who, to have put up with me for over twenty years, has had to exemplify both great love for me and deep trust in God. I have three brilliant, young-adult children who are a joy and who will be, I’m confident, my greatest legacy.
My subsequent eight years at a public university (Virginia), taking and teaching classes, and writing a dissertation, were excruciatingly hard. Still, they were, as to my intellectual growth, massively significant. I emerged at the end of my graduate studies with a view of the world and an attitude toward it vastly more lucid, more accurate, and more rich than when I began. When I try to summarize what I learned, the best I can do is this: I acquired the tools and the information necessary to see the world as it is, stripped of anything non-essential.
Sensing a need to feed both my family and myself (even while in graduate school), I have worked in business -- that is, outside of academia -- all my adult life. I've been primarily a manager, both of people and projects, hence the cheekiness of my website’s name. I've worked in manufacturing and in construction, in both corporate and institutional settings. I've made consumer products. And I've built laboratories, clinics, and classrooms. Some of my proudest achievements have taken place at work: It's deeply gratifying to see something you helped build be used to make sick people well.
As to home and family, I’m married to a dear woman who, to have put up with me for over twenty years, has had to exemplify both great love for me and deep trust in God. I have three brilliant, young-adult children who are a joy and who will be, I’m confident, my greatest legacy.
About this website
With full awareness as to how pompous this may sound, I understand part of my vocation as being a Christian intellectual. That is to say, I self-identify as someone who strives to think well, both as a human and as a believing Christian, and to boldly contend for what I think true, wherever I may have a voice. This website is one way I pursue that vocation.
One aspect of this calling is to pursue reconciliation: St. Paul writes that God “has committed to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). Such reconciliation, to my way of thinking, involves not only between persons and between humans and God -- vital as these are. It also involves “making peace” between distinct ways of thinking and rival knowledge claims. Note that this is not a mere accommodation, a false peace. Rather, proceeding under the axiom that “All truth is God’s truth,” it is to fearlessly strive to know, across as many disparate domains as possible, and to creatively seek explanations within which these knowings fit and cohere.
I thus intend that the pieces I write here, particularly as those benefit from feedback from others of goodwill, will -- both through the process of writing and the resultant words themselves -- serve me as I strive towards a vision of the World that is as true to the Real as possible.
As to the overall organization of the site, that should be clear enough. The general motion is from interior to exterior: from autobiography to philosophy to faith; on to other kinds of knowledge; and on to concerns about The Other.
With full awareness as to how pompous this may sound, I understand part of my vocation as being a Christian intellectual. That is to say, I self-identify as someone who strives to think well, both as a human and as a believing Christian, and to boldly contend for what I think true, wherever I may have a voice. This website is one way I pursue that vocation.
One aspect of this calling is to pursue reconciliation: St. Paul writes that God “has committed to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). Such reconciliation, to my way of thinking, involves not only between persons and between humans and God -- vital as these are. It also involves “making peace” between distinct ways of thinking and rival knowledge claims. Note that this is not a mere accommodation, a false peace. Rather, proceeding under the axiom that “All truth is God’s truth,” it is to fearlessly strive to know, across as many disparate domains as possible, and to creatively seek explanations within which these knowings fit and cohere.
I thus intend that the pieces I write here, particularly as those benefit from feedback from others of goodwill, will -- both through the process of writing and the resultant words themselves -- serve me as I strive towards a vision of the World that is as true to the Real as possible.
As to the overall organization of the site, that should be clear enough. The general motion is from interior to exterior: from autobiography to philosophy to faith; on to other kinds of knowledge; and on to concerns about The Other.
Disclaimers and other Housekeeping
Much of what I write here is work-in-progress. That is to say, my "findings" should be understood to be provisional, open to revision in the light of further information and thought. That’s what intellectual discovery, done in a public way, looks like.
I should also point out that much here will not have been vetted, as it were, by professional philosophers or theologians. Though I have a doctorate in philosophy, I am not a professional philosopher. While much of what I write here may seem to the layperson fairly "deep," to a professional philosopher or theologian it will likely seem the opposite. I welcome professional critique. However, I am not writing for such folk. I am writing for myself and for anyone who may find what I am learning helpful.
Though I will not disclose where I work or where I attend church, it would not be difficult to determine those. Suffice it to say that what I write here is from my own personal vantage. Nothing I say here should be construed as representing or representative of those organizations.
I should also say that courtesy and respect are deeply important to me. Much of what we learn in life comes, of course, in interaction with other people. And such interaction often involves clashes -- between ideas and between the people who hold them. Conflict is a part of life. How we handle conflict -- particularly, how we treat people with whom we disagree -- reveals much about our own personal integrity. Here, I will seek always to treat opposing opinions fairly and opposed people with courtesy and respect.
To get the most out of this website...
I suggest that you Read This First
And then next read A Personal Introduction
Major revision 7/30/18 (Original (ca.) 3/31/14. Minor revisions 11/22/14.)
Much of what I write here is work-in-progress. That is to say, my "findings" should be understood to be provisional, open to revision in the light of further information and thought. That’s what intellectual discovery, done in a public way, looks like.
I should also point out that much here will not have been vetted, as it were, by professional philosophers or theologians. Though I have a doctorate in philosophy, I am not a professional philosopher. While much of what I write here may seem to the layperson fairly "deep," to a professional philosopher or theologian it will likely seem the opposite. I welcome professional critique. However, I am not writing for such folk. I am writing for myself and for anyone who may find what I am learning helpful.
Though I will not disclose where I work or where I attend church, it would not be difficult to determine those. Suffice it to say that what I write here is from my own personal vantage. Nothing I say here should be construed as representing or representative of those organizations.
I should also say that courtesy and respect are deeply important to me. Much of what we learn in life comes, of course, in interaction with other people. And such interaction often involves clashes -- between ideas and between the people who hold them. Conflict is a part of life. How we handle conflict -- particularly, how we treat people with whom we disagree -- reveals much about our own personal integrity. Here, I will seek always to treat opposing opinions fairly and opposed people with courtesy and respect.
To get the most out of this website...
I suggest that you Read This First
And then next read A Personal Introduction
Major revision 7/30/18 (Original (ca.) 3/31/14. Minor revisions 11/22/14.)