(This is my first time preaching for some years — wish me luck!) Readings: Jer 20:7-13; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Luke 14:25-33 In my time I’ve worked in vocations and I’ve known a few other vocation directors too and one of the things we have all wondered about from time to time is how to advertise, …
Author Archives: Rob
Brainstorming: The Revenge of the Introverts
Rebecca Greenfield at Fast Company confirms my prejudices about brainstorming! Apparently research reveals that brainstorming sessions tend to pick out the more obvious and uncreative ideas simply because they get mentioned first and other people rally round them. Such sessions also tend to be dominated by the loudest rather than the most creative voices — …
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Blog Archaeology 3
Sixteen years ago today (27th July 1998) I preached this homily to the crowd in Oakland for Sunday Week 17 of Year C (Gen 18:20-32; Col 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13). It has more than usual of me front and centre and it is a little painful to re-read it knowing that though the dissertation I talk …
Motion in the Cosmos?
James Chastek, in a post at Just Thomism, starts out discussing absolute and relative motion … We pulled into the gas station and I was amazed by the number of bugs that had flown into the grill of the car. But then it hit me that this was not the best description of what happened. …
Perplexed, but not driven to despair
On this day, 25th July — the Feast of St James, in 1986 I submitted my DPhil thesis in Chemistry. I don’t remember the date of the viva which followed (somewhere in mid-August to allow me to enter the Jesuit novitiate in mid-September) but I do remember the submission day — not as a calendar …
The Problem of Modern Cosmology
I was prompted by yesterday’s post about the anniversary of the moon landing to look again at something I wrote as part of my doctoral dissertation in theological cosmology. I used the Apollo 11 photo above to unearth some of the contradictions inherent in the idea of ‘modern cosmology’. I don’t know how much sense …
Moon Landing Memories
Patrick McCray over at Leaping Robot Blog has an interesting post prompted by the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon mission. (There is a great gallery of photos of the mission at The Atlantic too…) He quotes his friend Roger Malina In 2007, I went to Bangalore where we had organized a “Space and …
Are the Puzzle Pieces Coming Together Understanding ME?
Cort Johnson at Health Rising reports on the optimistic views of Dr Lucinda Bateman about an emerging understanding of ME/CFS (the video of her talk is embedded above) involving autoimmunity, brain inflammation, and the autonomic nervous system.
Blog Archaeology 2
As I threatened, I am digging into the past for some homilies that might be worth re-exhibiting. This one is from this day in 1999 and uses one of my favourites, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to reflect on the readings for that Sunday (Year A week 16): Wis 12:13-19; Rom 8:26-27; Matt 13:24-43. You will …
Experimental Theology and the Art of Andy Goldsworthy
Richard Beck at Experimental Theology has been posting a series of theological reflections on the work of British artist Andy Goldsworthy. A large part of Goldsworthy’s art, and what he is most notable for, is simply wandering out into the natural world and using natural materials–stones, thorns, leaves, flowers, branches, ice–to create a piece of …
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