Dwelling
Raids on the New Gnosticism III: Metric System, Human Scale, and Technologies of Control
In this series I have been trying to show how, quite without any nefarious intentions, anti-body assumptions have worked their way into our contemporary experience. Intentionally eclectic to show the many dimensions of how this [...]
Raids against the New Gnosticism, part II: Umpires, Judges, and Bureaucracy
In my last post I tried to indicate some ways in which a certain anti-body bias has worked its way into contemporary life. I worry about this re-emergence of the ancient Gnostic philosophy. "Hospitalism" or [...]
Raids against the new Gnosticism, Part I: Hospitalism and the Newborn Body
What are bodies for? It's not as obvious a question as it might seem. They're for using, I suppose. I use mine daily. They bring us (if "they" aren't "us" straightforwardly) a lot of pleasure [...]
Growing Roofs
February 12, 2022 His name is Jacques, and he kind of died a long time ago. I say his name "is" Jacques, and it might well have been, but what I mean is that it [...]
Walden, I Hope
This semester I'm teaching Theological Ethics. The first half of the course will be three theorists, or kind of big-picture introductions to ethics, Alan Donagan (Kantian/deontology), Paul Ramsey (love and agape, with a bit of [...]
Canoe Fairs Its Own Line
About six years ago I built a cedar-strip canoe. It was a very fun project, following the process laid out in Ted Moores' classic book Canoecraft. If you're interested in building a canoe I [...]
“Fine things in wood are important, not only aesthetically, as oddities or rarities, but because we are becoming aware of the fact that much of our life is spent buying and discarding, and buying again, things that are not good. Some of us long to have at least something, somewhere, which will give us harmony and a sense of durability—I won’t say permanence, but durability—things that, through the years, become more and more beautiful, things we can leave to our children.”
