Category Archives: Culture

How To Be More Influential Than Justin Bieber

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

The question of the true nature of influence and how one exerts and measures it is one that has occurred to me at various junctures in the past. I have never made any studied attempt to become either influential or … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Society | 7 Comments

Links and Jottings 2

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

Having a lot of half-formed thoughts prompted by various articles in my mind at the moment, I thought that I would quickly post a few of them here, along with some interesting links. 1. David Brooks writes about the crisis … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Culture, Ethics, In the News, Just for Fun, Music, On the web, OT, Quotations, The Blogosphere, Theological, Uncategorized, Video | 1 Comment

Very Rough and Rambling Jottings on the Church and Social Media

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

Having spent a considerable proportion of my life online, the nature and influence of online media upon our modes of thinking and relating are subjects upon which I have frequently reflected. Within this post I wanted to raise a few … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Ethics, The Church, The Sacraments, Theological, Worship | 11 Comments

Links and Jottings

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

Having not blogged much here for a little while, I thought that I would quickly post a few miscellaneous links and thoughts. I regularly post links in my Delicious account, which is linked in my sidebar (more general and less … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Culture, Ethics, My Reading, OT, Philosophy, Quotations, Theological, What I'm Reading | 2 Comments

The Institution of Marriage, Same-Sex Unions, and Procreation

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

John H blogged on the connection between marriage and procreation and the infertility objection earlier today on Curlew River. While frequently employed as a facile and dismissive rejoinder to any argument that would identify procreation as a primary purpose of … Continue reading →

Posted in Controversies, Culture, Ethics | 67 Comments

Modest is Hottest?

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

I have had reason to think about the subject of modesty recently, and would really appreciate hearing the thoughts and perspectives of my blog readers on the subject. A few preliminary remarks, before opening the discussion up. First, discussions of … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Ethics | 17 Comments

Introversion and Why Evangelicalism is Doing It Wrong

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

Introversion In a recent interview for Scientific American, Susan Cain claims that American society is biased in favour of extroversion. Cataloguing some of the ways in which introverts can be marginalized and their skills underappreciated, she argues that this results … Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Experience, Culture, The Church, The Sacraments, Theological, Worship | 43 Comments

How the Liberal Market Revolutionized our Understanding of Humanity

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

In The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society, Murray Jardine raises questions about the underlying anthropological assumptions of the market as it functions within liberal societies (I raise a slightly different set of questions about its anthropology of individual self-interest … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Economics, My Reading, What I'm Reading | 2 Comments

Body-Modification, the Market, and Identity

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Alastair Roberts

This post follows on from On Tattoos. It might be best to read that first. Following my recent post on the subject of tattoos, John H suggested a connection between the practice of body-modification and Christian consumerism. Both are attempts … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 8 Comments