"If we take a more living and more Christian perspective we find in ourselves a simple affirmation which is not of ourselves. It simply is. In our being there is a primordial yes that is not our own; it is not at our own disposal; it is not accessible to our inspection and understanding; we do not even fully experience it as real (except in rare and unique ' is something they never advert to at all. It is in fact absolutely unconscious, totally forgotten. Basically, however, my being is not an of Being itself, irrespective of my own choices. "Where do 'I' come in? Simply in uniting the 'yes' of my own freedom with the 'yes' of Being that already is before I have chosen to choose." [Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Image Books, 1968/1989, 266]

Thanks for Nothing Adam and Eve

Jandrew hamiltonIn recent centuries the relationship between Christian theology and the prevailing political and intellectual culture has alternated on both sides between dismissal, avoidance and accommodation. Occasionally, as in St Augustine's monumental City of God,it has been conducted as takeover. Augustine offered a magisterial account of Roman culture and its presuppositions, claiming that its contradictions and aspirations could be reconciled only on the basis of Christian faith. Read more.