Home Thoughts from Abroad
"Home Thoughts from Abroad" is the name of a poem by Robert Browning, in which he expresses a longing, a Sehnsucht for home, which for him was England. "Home Thoughts from Abroad" was also a sketch in the 1960s English comedy "Beyond the Fringe", which my brother and I have performed intermittently since high school. In this sketch American life and culture is humorously portrayed as philistine and critiqued from an upper-class Oxbridge English perspective. It does have some amazing insights. The sketch actually endeared to me those very American peculiarities which it so humorously lampoons.
To me "Home Thoughts from Abroad" is a place where, as a resident of three very different, unique, historic, and multicultural cities, I can explore and reflect on the notions and experiences of place, culture, language, ethnicity, rootedness and Entfremdung (alienation) from a perspective which is rooted in Western religious, literary, and philosophical tradition. New Orleans provides one with an experience of life in every extreme - joy and sadness, the heights and depths, wealth and poverty, life and death - in such concentrated doses that it makes it difficult or impossible to escape reality. This, for me, is one of the joys and gifts of New Orleans. Vienna is to me like an old glove, in which I feel very comfortable and at home. In Vienna, one can enjoy the very best that Europe has to offer. Paris is both foreign, but familiar - a place and a culture for which one longs and one is not disappointed.
"Zeitgeistliche Überlegungen" continues this theme to include observations about current events and ideas, and my thoughts about them. Although the blog will be mainly in English, some German or French may appear from time-to-time.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Some interesting perspectives on the attraction of Donald Trump to conservative Evangelicals.... Authoritarianism.
Two recent articles illuminate this issue very well.
The first published on Politico notes that the common attractive feature among Trump supporters including Evangelicals is that he speaks to their longing for an Authoritarian figure...
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533
The second article is from the New York Times and sees his support coming from Trump as a "Man of conviction" which is not unrelated to authoritarianism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/us/politics/evangelicals-see-donald-trump-as-man-of-conviction-if-not-faith.html?emc=edit_th_20160119&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=1888164&_r=0&referer=
Like many religious people, some conservatives Evangelicals love things to be simple, simple black and white, simple right and wrong. Shades of gray are dangerous. Nuance is dangerous. Trump is attractive because he is none of these.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Does God Hate Haiti?
Does God Hate Haiti?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Arrested Baptist: Lone-Ranger Missions
Missionary Imposition: Idaho Baptists Charged With Kidnapping 33 Haitian Children Human Rights/Immigration ReligionDispatches
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Excellent forum on Civility at the National Cathedral - with Os Guinness
http://www.nationalcathedral.org/events/SF20100124.shtml
Friday, January 22, 2010
Haiti and the Pat Robertson Paradox -- Politics Daily
This is an insightful piece by Jeffrey Weiss formerly of the Dallas Morning News.