Good reflection of the collapse of Mainline Protestantism- whether following Fosdick heresy, Lambeth conferences of the early 20th century, etc., easy to see its results through Rawls and other 20th Century humanists/atheists.
Thanks for the background of this part Rawls life and the impact it had on his thought. When his A Theory of Justice appeared in 1971 it did not have the impact it should have had. Academic philosophy was in the thrall of linguistic analysis and social philosophy was losing interest among academics and the public. The social liberalism of the 30s into the early 60s highlighted by people as John Dewey and Reinhold Niebuhr seemed worn out and then by the late 60s Americans had little interest in another round of government activism. His fine work came a bit too late.
Theory was a great analysis that still deserves attention and I noticed that there is interest stirring again. We need talk of fairness, justice and comity. Rawls will provide it
Really great essay on what theologians call _theodicy_ (the attempt to reconcile the existence of an all-powerful, loving god with the existence of evil. Given that it's now football season, I like the following joke (although it may not be directly relevant to our discussion). Notre Dame was facing a must-win game, but were underdogs. Late at night before the big game, a priest was walking across campus and noticed a light burning in the head coach's office. He went up to see if he could console him. The coach was pacing the floor nervously, so the priest told him: "Relax! God doesn't care who wins." The coach replied: "No, but his mother does."
His thoughts on how the bullets were "managed by god" reminds me of every disaster such as a tornado- in which news crews interview the people and one will say "my house was undamaged-God was looking out for me" when apparently, God wasn't looking out for the next door neighbor whose house got flattened killing the neighbor.
Good reflection of the collapse of Mainline Protestantism- whether following Fosdick heresy, Lambeth conferences of the early 20th century, etc., easy to see its results through Rawls and other 20th Century humanists/atheists.
Thanks for the background of this part Rawls life and the impact it had on his thought. When his A Theory of Justice appeared in 1971 it did not have the impact it should have had. Academic philosophy was in the thrall of linguistic analysis and social philosophy was losing interest among academics and the public. The social liberalism of the 30s into the early 60s highlighted by people as John Dewey and Reinhold Niebuhr seemed worn out and then by the late 60s Americans had little interest in another round of government activism. His fine work came a bit too late.
Theory was a great analysis that still deserves attention and I noticed that there is interest stirring again. We need talk of fairness, justice and comity. Rawls will provide it
Really great essay on what theologians call _theodicy_ (the attempt to reconcile the existence of an all-powerful, loving god with the existence of evil. Given that it's now football season, I like the following joke (although it may not be directly relevant to our discussion). Notre Dame was facing a must-win game, but were underdogs. Late at night before the big game, a priest was walking across campus and noticed a light burning in the head coach's office. He went up to see if he could console him. The coach was pacing the floor nervously, so the priest told him: "Relax! God doesn't care who wins." The coach replied: "No, but his mother does."
Pretty good one.
His thoughts on how the bullets were "managed by god" reminds me of every disaster such as a tornado- in which news crews interview the people and one will say "my house was undamaged-God was looking out for me" when apparently, God wasn't looking out for the next door neighbor whose house got flattened killing the neighbor.