When we live the way we are supposed to God is glorified and we are blessed or happy (shalom). The biblical view of happiness is cultivated by living according to biblical virtues, such as justice and righteousness, which are motivated by flourishing (shalom). In this paper, I explore the prophet Isaiah’s prognostication in Isaiah 32:16-17…
The classical Greek matrix of holiness (goodness) is expressed in one of the two horns of a classic moral dilemma called Euthyphro’s Dilemma. In one of Plato’s early dialogues, Euthyphro, Socrates inquires of Euthyphro, a religious expert on the subject of holiness, why holiness is loved by the gods: either holiness is holy because it…
A strictly Darwinian process of evolution is insufficient to account for a universal principle such as the pursuit of happiness. Admittedly, natural selection as an unguided (“blind”) and purposeless process may explain why human beings seek to survive, but it fails to explain why we seek to thrive. Human flourishing seems superfluous to the individuals…
In Rubén Darío’s poem, “Los Motivos Del Lobo” (“The Motives of the Wolf”), St. Francis of Assisi converts a wolf into being civilized but only temporarily does the feral canine stop the slaughter of animals and humans in the hills of an Italian town, Gubbio. At first the wolf conforms to the ways of the…
There are basically two types of skeptics: one that builds and the other that destroys. The former curiously takes things apart so she can know how things work, and because she respects the inherent design structure of the object she puts it back together again so others can enjoy it also. The latter anxiously pulls…
If you have ever heard the term “liberation theology” in conversation but were too embarrassed to ask what it meant or maybe you are already acquainted with the term but you would like a relatively terse description of it, then look no further. In this 10 page paper, you will learn the methodology of one…
The heart of God is for human flourishing. Episode 3, Intro to Biblical Ethics
IDEAS have consequences. For example, the invention and devastation of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II, started with an idea of atomic fission. Likewise, beliefs have consequences. For example, the Columbine school massacre on April 20, 1999, the 110th anniversary of Adolph Hitler’s birthday, was in part the result…
WHEN WE LIVE the way we are supposed to God is glorified and we are blessed (happy)! Sadly, most modern Christians take issue with the notion that happiness is for the here-and-now, delaying it for the afterlife. Too often we gorge ourselves on an ethical diet of doing the “right thing” out of a sense…