Tag Archives: Reflections

Diversity and Inclusion

“Diversity and inclusion” have become buzz words and they mean different things to different people. The most obvious meaning of diversity seems to be acceptance that different persons, cultures, races, personalities, etc. have equal right to favourable consideration in society. … Continue reading →

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Optimism and Christian Humanism

This is not an easy time for either optimism or humanism when considering the depths of depravity to which human nature can plunge (with a thought of Calvin’s complete pessimism and that of Jansenism). I came across a very interesting … Continue reading →

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Tourism

At the risk of repeating myself, I often have these thoughts about what mass tourism has done, quite apart from spreading infectious diseases like SARS-COVID-2. I have been around some of Europe and a few times to the USA for … Continue reading →

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Self Reliance

This is a theme on which I have already touched in my posting about Transcendentalism which I encountered through Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was distinguished through his Self-Reliance. It is a point that is still uppermost in my … Continue reading →

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Sectarian Religion and the Abdication of Reason

Some reflections on irrational religion, “red herrings” and diseases of the mind. I discuss some aspects of the “ecclesiastical freak show” that attracts curiosity, and how this curiosity needs to give way to critical reasoning and creative imagination. I touch … Continue reading →

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An Easter Day Ramble

I have put this little talk on my Romantic Christianity book. I finish with IX of the Spiritual Songs by Novalis on the Resurrection – in German and then in George McDonald’s beautiful English translation.

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A Reflection on Louis-Claude de Saint Martin

From Louis-Claude de Saint Martin’s L’Homme de Désir, Chant 177: Qui frappe à la porte sainte ? Un homme de paix, un homme de désir. Cet homme de paix, cet homme de désir, a-t-il vaincu ses ennemis ? Who is … Continue reading →

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Learning Common Sense

The UK is about to go into compulsory lockdown. We have been in lockdown here in France for just one week and Italy for quite a bit longer. Still, some people are in denial and spout all kind of conspiracy … Continue reading →

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Impressions of a quick shopping trip

After nearly a week of being at home, we needed a few supplies from a local farm shop where they breed pigs and sell their meat. I had seen scenes of cities in France and Italy without a soul in … Continue reading →

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Open and Closed

As we are now in the days of the great O antiphons leading up to Christmas in its most Christian meaning, I have intentionally looked away from politics and its incessant contradictions, smoke and mirrors. Apart from my translation work, … Continue reading →

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