Deus Misereatur

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig My rating: 3 of 5 stars My son had to read it for a philosophy of science class. After he completed the course he asked me to read it so we could talk. If it hadn't been for my son's request I would likely have put it down a time or two. But, I plowed on over the weeks to see what my son had been reading, and to talk it over with him. A clash of ideas. A wrangling between Western and Eastern philosophy. Layers of story line that include father and son, technology and art, mental illness and mental prowess, rhetoric and dialectic, the one and the many, institutionally trained motorcycle mechanics and those who are motorcycle mechanic-artists, romantic and classic modes of thought, et alia. In so many ways it is a fascinating story. Maybe something of a mystical tale for non-theists with a surprise ending? Now I'm done, and ready to talk. He's already moved on and delving into other t...

My youngest son had a paper to complete on Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Idiot," and the Enlightenment for his AP English Literature class. While we were talking over his content, he was puzzled by the "who" and "what" of the Enlightenment. It just so happened that a new 240 page softback book, "Approaching Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction to Thinkers, Concepts, Methods and Debates" had arrived by post the week before, a work compiled by Anthony C. Thiselton, emeritus professor of Christian theology at the University of Nottingham, England, and fellow of the British Academy. After my teenage son and I perused the volume, examining the installments on the Enlightenment, he borrowed the book and immediately referenced it in his paper. The volume proved to be easily accessible in finding the appropriate topic, and comprehensible by a teenage reader. "Approaching Philosophy of Religion" simply unfolds in four sections. It begins with ...