Religion – The Scholar's Stage

Observations From India

05 January, 2025Bharat, Electoral Intrigues, Futuristics, Narrative, Political Theory, Religion, The Middle Kingdom, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

In November 2024, I traveled to India as part of a delegation hosted by the India Foundation. The foundation is a part of the new nationalist establishment steering Indian society. As they see things, India’s relationship with America has been mediated by hostile parties for too long. On the Indian side you have Congress-sympathizing functionaries; on the American side, a set of intellectuals and diplomats who can neither speak for nor to the American right. Direct links between Indian and American nationalists are needed.

So I was invited India.

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Dionysus Against the Daoists

29 September, 2024History, Narrative, Nature Red in Tooth and Claw, Religion, Romans and Grecians, The Middle Kingdom

IN WESTERN PHILOSOPHY AND AESTHETICS a contrast is sometimes made between the Dionysian and the Apollonian. Made famous by Nietzsche, this schema was first used to describe the thought and art of Ancient Greece. On the Apollonian end we have all that is rational, intentional, structured, abstract, or well ordered; on the Dionysian side we find all that is passionate, instinctual, chaotic, sensual or protean. The Apollonian strain of western culture is associated with daylight, law, mathematics, sculpture, discipline, and the city; the Dionysian strain is associated with nightfall, violence, poetry, music, drunkenness, and nature. The Apollonian element is stereotypically male; the Dionysian element is stereotypically female. The Apollonian ideal is realized by the solitary philosopher solemn in thought. The model Dionysian is an ecstatic madman frenzied in a crowd.

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On Laws and Gods

23 March, 2021By The People, Political Theory, Religion

Image Source It would take gods to give men laws. —Jean-Jacques Rousseau [1762] This is going to be one of those essays where I throw a lot of things on the wall and see what sticks. We are going to range today from the American Revolution to Cambodian spirits to hunter-gatherer conceptions of authority to […]

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Do Not Trust Journalists (A Mormon Example)

18 December, 2019Media, Narrative, Religion

Do not trust journalists. This is a hard thing for me to write: I am a journalist. I regularly write dispatches from abroad for various media outlets, and the occasional opinion commentary to boot. Yet I have trouble trusting journalists. Especially those who are not transparent about how they developed their understanding of the issues […]

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Everything is Worse in China

19 July, 2017Books and Literature, Community, Culture, Narrative, Religion, The Middle Kingdom

One of the benefits of living in China is a certain sense of perspective. China exists outside of the Anglophone culture wars. It would not be accurate to say the Chinese don’t have an opinion or even a stake in American cultural crusades. They do. But our fights are not their fights, and even when […]

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The Fight Against ISIS: A Few (Unorthodox) Points For Discussion

17 November, 2015Dogs of War, Military Affairs, Narrative, Near East, Religion

Source: Max Fischer and Zack Beauchamp, “14 Maps that Explain ISIS,” Vox.com (25 September 2014) This week has seen a flurry of commentary and discussion about ISIS and the proper way for France and the United States to respond to the attacks in Paris. I find myself repeating a similar set of points in many […]

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Vox Will Never Understand Islam… Or Any Religion, Really

15 November, 2015Media, Religion

Image Source. I wish I could say that this Vox hot-take by Max Fisher is the most foolish piece Vox has published and Fisher has written. Alas, this is not the case. It is a rather run-of-the-mill effort from Vox‘s foreign policy team, no more vapid than their usual fare. What distinguishes this piece from it peers is […]

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Notes From All Over (3/09/15): Chinese Media, Ancient War, and Strategic Theory

03 September, 2015Complex Systems, Dogs of War, Domestic Politics, Education, Entangling Alliances, Geopolitics, History, Near East, Notes From All Over, Political Theory, Religion, Strategy, The Middle Kingdom, Wealth

A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. TOP BILLING “Down With the Nihilists!” and “Love Thy Country““T.J. Ma.” Chublic Opinion. (31 & 6 August 2015). I was led to this blog by the recommendation of Kaiser Kuo and instantly knew that it needed to be on the blog roll. “T.J. Ma” writes […]

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Iran: The Debate We Should Be Having

24 July, 2015Arabia, Entangling Alliances, Geopolitics, Near East, Persia, Religion

Major religions in the Middle EastImage Source: Columbia University’s Gulf 2000 Project I am not a specialist in arms control or nuclear technology. I must rely on the judgement of others with relevant expertise to assess the viability of the new agreement with Iran. This makes things difficult, for the opinions of experts I trust […]

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A Civilization Is at Stake Here

27 February, 2015Arabia, Culture, History, Near East, On Humanity, Persia, Religion, Tyranny

Perhaps the most predictable fall-out of Graeme Wood’s influential cover article for The Atlantic, “What the Islamic State Really Wants,” is another round of debate over whether or not the atrocities committed by ISIS and other armed fundamentalist terrorist outfits are sanctioned by the Qur’an, Hadith, and other Islamic texts, and if not, whether these […]

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Category Archives: Religion