Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

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…or, Something to keep you busy over the weekend…

…or, The Past Fortnight in the Theoblogosphere.

As has been true of the last few installments, “fortnight” applies only loosely. Just because I don’t have time to post here as the semester finishes up doesn’t mean that I’m not paying attention to the theo-blogosphere. I am, and I have – as usual – culled some of the more interesting stuff for your consideration. Some of this stuff was getting a bit dated, so when I found a few minutes sitting on my hands I figured that I would share them with you.

To begin, you’ll want to be sure and check out what has been available recently on DET: a post on Barth’s dialog with Catholicism in his Münster period, a call for papers from an upcoming graduate student conference at Harvard, and an announcement for the C. S. Lewis Essay Prize.

That said, here is some of the other stuff, presented as bullet-points in a more-or-less random order:

  • Why not start with politics? Here is an article about an MIT economist who has written about how income inequality significantly undermines the political power wielded by the middle class. This reminds me forcibly of the claims made by a recent social protest movement on, which I have had occasion to comment on before.
  • Continuing on in a similar vein, here is an article from The Atlantic about what it means to live in a culture, as we currently do, that puts a price-tag on virtually everything. Here are some examples from the article of things you can buy: “A prison-cell upgrade: $90 a night”; “The right to emit a metric ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere: $10.50”; “Stand in line overnight on Capitol Hill to hold a place for a lobbyist who wants to attend a congressional hearing: $15–$20 an hour”; “Access to the carpool lane while driving solo: $8”; etc.
  • We’re developing a theme… Here is a piece from the NYTimes entitled, “The Rich Get Even Richer,” which deals with some recent studies on income and wealth inequality.
  • Changing the subject a bit, here are some more doodlings from Kim Fabricius over at Faith and Theology. Here is the first as a kind of sample: “The homophobic Christian world should be applauding gay marriage. If it’s anything like the heterosexual variety, there goes the torrid sex it finds so disgusting.”
  • Sticking with F&T, here are “Eleven Theses on Love” from Ben Myers.
  • So we’ve done politics, we’ve done theology, and now we’ll combine them. Remember that fracas earlier in the year when the Catholic bishops threw a hissy fit because the government was going to require them to provide access to contraception through their various medical organs (a very crass oversimplification, sure)? Well, the folks over at Women in Theology were paying close attention. When some of the bishops suggested that they would give up their hospitals for lent (i.e., shut down their hospitals, denying care to God knows how many patients, all to make a political point) the WIT folk replied, quoting various official RC documents, that perhaps Catholics ought to cut all ties with the US military. This is a must-read.
  • Alas, my time is up and I must break off this communiqué. I will do my best to bring you another link roundup as soon as possible, as my hopper is nowhere near empty yet. But I leave you with this: an incredibly humorous letter from the British tax services in response to…shall we say…a dissatisfied citizen?

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