Rants
Manunkind on “Cyber Monday”
This Monday morning, I spent about 50 minutes trying to convince a group of 12 students, 18-20 year olds, that they should share the moral philosopher Philip Hallie’s outrage about Nazis torturing Jewish and Gypsy children… almost 70 years ago… and that they should enter into his professional concern — his puzzlement — over the [...]
A Note on the “Banality of Evil”
Hannah Arendt’s essay Eichmann in Jerusalem, about the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, famously coined the phrase “Banality of Evil,” a controversial term which she defends (on pages 287–288 in the Penguin Classics edition) by explaining that she used it merely because it fits the man. His responsibility for evil acts is [...]
Knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures
The inclusion of the Hebrew Scriptures in the Christian canon implies what is certain: Christians claim inheritance in the story of Israel. What is shameful, however, is how poorly Christians know the greater arc of the narrative. Yes, they know the smaller stories well — tales of heroes, scoundrels and prophets or of [...]
A Free Iran
Our brothers and sisters in Iran should be free. By “free,” I mean in particular that they should throw off the yoke of coercive religion. In a free society, agents of religious authority are never given coercive (i.e. political) power. The people may listen to the leaders of their various faiths. [...]