Tag Archives: Philosophy

Politics

My America

I live and work in Saudi Arabia. I work for a Saudi company, and my colleagues are largely Saudis supported by a mix of Egyptians, Pakistanis, Indians, and other people from this side of the world.

My boss, however, is an American, a convert to Islam who moved here a decade ago and has lived here ever since. He is black, the son of a minister, and a product of private catholic schools.

We have many differences, but as much or more in common, and we have developed a real and enjoyable friendship. A few days ago at the end of work we headed over to a burger joint—of which there are many in Riyadh—to share a meal and conversation.

On the way, I asked him: What is your ideal country? If you could build your Utopia, what would it look like?

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Faith

Presuppositions that Frame my Examination of the Scriptures

The following points were first written in May of 2015 for a group of dear friends with whom I was working through some questions related to the Christian faith of my childhood and early adult years. Beginning in my early-mid 30s, for the first time in my life I began to seriously question the veracity and authority of the Bible. These points are an output of that process of questioning. (DL, Sept. 6, 2021)

What follows is an attempt to frame the starting point from whence I begin an examination of the Scriptures. These points should be taken as a provisional and ad hoc distillation of thoughts I’ve been a long-time forming. I am happy to see them challenged or accepted as suits the reader.

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Thoughts

Sehnsucht

Note: This is a lightly edited version of an e-mail I sent on May 10, 2015. The concept of Sehnsucht was originally introduced to me by a dear friend (Gloria Repp) some years prior. Since writing this I have experienced what I only know how to describe as a kind of emotional burnout. The glimpses described her stopped. Whether from aging, emotional trauma, or some other cause I do not know. Nevertheless, it feels a bit like a part of my brain–the emotionally imaginative and hopeful part–has burnt out. Hopefully not forever. (DL, Dec. 4, 2022)

Sehnsucht is a German word. It means “longing.”

But it represents something more than that English word conveys. It is a very difficult concept for me to explain, but it’s a very important one, for it a key to my secret heart, my secret longing. In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis uses the word “Joy” in a special way. It’s a feeling he would get at certain unexpected moments while reading or walking in the countryside or listening to music. More than happiness, more than jollity, it’s like for a moment he would get a feeling or a glimpse of something deeper, more real, more perfect than this world. He would be taken beyond this world for a moment and filled with wonder; he would be surprised by joy. And those glimpses of joy begat a longing for joy, a longing for the perfect, a longing that led him to search for it in literature and music and philosophy till he found it in Christ. That longing for joy, for the perfect and complete, could be called sehnsucht,

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Thoughts

Morality Presupposes Transcendence

Note: This series of Facebook comments began as a response to someone I’ve forgotten on a friend’s post that I’ve also forgotten. Through all my decade plus of spiritual doubt, I never lost confidence in—and still have never lost—the observation expressed in this post that without a transcendent reality beyond the material universe, there can be no rational basis for the concepts of Good an Evil. I only have my part of the exchange. Summary comments have been added for clarity. (DL, June 13, 2023).

What the quote [OP’s Name Redacted] posted addresses is a fundamental flaw with philosophical materialism. If there is no reality beyond the matter of this universe, then talking about good and evil is meaningless.

States of matter cannot be good or evil. They are simply configurations of atoms. A supernova doesn’t have moral quality, neither does an avalanche. Both are simply matter in motion.

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