Taking William James Seriously
This essay was presented to the Eric Voegelin Society on 26 September, 2022. The Hidden God has chosen to speak. Or, to put it more abstractly,…
My Station and Its Duties, and What Comes Next?
For some time, I have been dissatisfied with a certain feature manifested by both ethical philosophies and the great religions, at least in their textbook form. Ethical…
Love and Other Conversions
Sometimes individuals change not only their belief systems but their deepest selves and life orientations. Conversion, in the empirical sense, usually refers to a person’s newfound acceptance…
Scotus, Hopkins, and Living in the Particular
A few years ago, while still an agnostic, I had an experience of a divine voice speaking to me. Sometime later, my wife asked me whether I…
Joan of Arc and the Challenge of Spiritual Discernment
We are told these days not to be judgmental. Being judgmental is indeed a vice, a way of lording it over others, but the making of judgments…
Voegelin’s Soteriology and Ours
Every religious tradition offers a soteriology – its own version of salvation called by whatever name – perhaps spiritual liberation as in the Hindu moksha or enlightenment…
Does God Have a History?
Let us begin our inquiry with the following datum: The human experience of the Divine Reality has often, though not always, been an encounter with a personal…
Divine Presence and Epistemic Trust
A few years ago, in spite of being a life-long agnostic, I had occasion to pray. A wonderful woman had come into my life, and I felt…
The Scandal of Divine Presence
"I will be there with you." One of the most extraordinary moments in the history of revelation is God’s response to Moses’ question: “They will say to…
From Piaget to the Tetragrammaton: Religious Thought and Psychological Development
Worldview and Mind: Religious Thought and Psychological Development. Eugene Webb. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. 2009. Let it be understood up front that Worldview and…