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gill-bates | 5 months ago

In these times I'm finding myself more drawn to reading and trying to understand christian views on a number of modern issues.

Does anyone know where to find more? Where are the modern christian scholars? Are there christian publications easily available? In the universities I found those sources are available, but only in the specific context of studying religion but much less so as another voice on the subject at hand.

discuss

order

friendly_deer|5 months ago

First Things[0] is one of my favorite magazines. It has perspectives I rarely see anywhere else, and generally well articulated and argued for (provided you accept Christian first-principles).

New Polity Podcast[1] also regularly features smart conversations.

[0] https://firstthings.com/

[1] https://newpolity.com/podcasts

gill-bates|5 months ago

Thanks! I'm used to looking at an argument and understanding that it comes with a set of presuppositions that must be accepted for the argument to follow (my academic background is in philosophy). I suppose the position I find myself in is at least toying with those presuppositions. I am finding the arguments that stem from them to be valuable and I can adopt the first principles while thinking about it and I'll leave the question of whether they themselves are right or worth holding for another moment.

svieira|5 months ago

"Another voice on the subject at hand" is definitely available - but simply searching "{Christian, Catholic} {[SUBJECT MATTER], [KIND OF MATERIAL]" will often unearth some good starting points. E. g. "Christian social periodical" will eventually lead you to https://firstthings.com/ (as an example).

Some suggestions for a variety of subjects:

* Fr. Stanley Jaki on Physics and the philosophy of science - I am working through https://www.abebooks.com/9780895267498/God-Cosmologists-Jaki...

* Philosophy in general, Peter Kreeft (I recommend "Jesus Shock", it's amazing how "used" to Christ we've become, and this book does a good job of pointing out just how different the reactions to him are) and Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue) are both good "recent" authors.

* Bioethics and philosophy https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Bioethics-Limits-Scie... (I will freely admit to bias here, but this is easy to read, clear, and to the point)

* Particularly interesting in the moment: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-limits-...

yesfitz|5 months ago

From the Roman Catholic point of view, there's a variety of answers.

For super up-to-date happenings, you can go to Vatican News[1]. (A great example in the first article, "Holy See urges moratorium on autonomous weapons at UN debate on AI".)

For weightier, more timeless writings that address the issues of the current day, but are meant to be read indefinitely, the Papal Encyclicals[2] are the look. Rerum Novarum is a good one to start with.

I'd be skeptical of any persuasive writings by lay-persons (i.e. not priests or nuns). It's like the difference between a lawyer's opinion and a judge's ruling. They can be fantastic scholars, but they don't speak for the church.

1: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city.html 2: https://www.papalencyclicals.net/

jazzyb|5 months ago

I recommend Paul Kingsnorth.

Insightful analysis of the modern world and the Christian response to it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3hMSZqatHI

He also has a new book out, Against the Machine, which has good reviews, but I haven't read yet.

nlavezzo|5 months ago

Some of my favorites recently for intellectually engaging Christian thinking are "The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God" podcast (first season is the best), and the book "Reasonable Faith" by William Lane Craig.

gill-bates|5 months ago

Interesting looking book, but it seems a bit too meta for what I'm looking for. I'm not really looking for an argument for Christianity, but rather arguments from Christianity on modernity. Or did I not understand the role of that book?