Valentinus was a Christian, not a “Gnostic”: Exploration of the history shaped by the “Orthodoxy vs Heresy” Dichotomy

In this series, I will look at the historical figure Valentinus (2nd c, CE), whose life work demonstrates an important intersection of second century, CE, Western thought: Hellenistic trends in Judaism and Christianity in Alexandria, "gnostic" influences from Syria and Palestine, a classical education in Greek philosophy and highly sophisticated Christian theology. He is remembered,... Continue Reading →

June 12, 2015 0

Pierre Bourdieu on How Language Shapes Reality

Although I've written previously about Pierre Bourdieu's social theory, especially in regard to how we view religion in society, my favorite insight from his work is on how language, power and perception of reality are related in our daily lives. Here is a short summary of how language shapes our perception of reality, according to Bourdieu.... Continue Reading →

June 12, 2015 1

Power Relations and the Socially Constructed Self: What does this say about “belief”? Part V: Conclusion

Could it be that any Creator worth existing must be beyond human understanding, so that religion is actually a human construct? Perhaps speculating on human behavior in regards to religious habits should be no different than studying any other type of human behavior, because if God is behind it at all, God is behind it... Continue Reading →

June 11, 2015 0

Power Relations and the Socially Constructed Self: What does this say about “belief”? Part IV: Pierre Bourdieu

This is the third in a series, in which I will present a partial summary of systems for three theorists and then apply them to a question in the final post: the relationship between social indoctrination and personal belief. To read the previous post, regarding Michel Foucault, read here. To jump to the first post... Continue Reading →

June 8, 2015 1

Power Relations and the Socially Constructed Self: What does this say about “belief”? Part III: Michel Foucault

This is the third in a series, in which I will present a partial summary of systems for three theorists and then apply them to a question in the final post. To read the previous post, regarding Louis Althusser, read here. To jump to the first post and read from the beginning, read here. This... Continue Reading →

June 7, 2015 0

Power Relations and the Socially Constructed Self: What does this say about “belief”? Part II: Louis Althusser

In the previous post, I presented an overview of this series. Here, I will focus on Louis Althusser. After providing a more comprehensive overview of the three theorists, I will discuss the relationship between social indoctrination and personal belief. Althusser Louis Althusser claims that a primary function of State Power in a capitalist society is to perpetuate the... Continue Reading →

June 6, 2015 0

Power Relations and the Socially Constructed Self: What does this say about “belief”? Part I

Early church fathers Clement and Origen of Alexandria both contended that, for God to be truly all-good, all-powerful and omnipresent, it stands to reason that (everything being a part of God and destined to return to God in the end) Satan would also be redeemed, forgiven, changed and would return to the Source with all... Continue Reading →

June 5, 2015 0

The Satanic Ritual Cult Scare: Studying the Social Construction of False Realities

This blog contains excerpts and commentary from the developing the novel, beginning with "excerpt 1": Fire of Norea: From Ashes, first excerpt. A new blog will be published periodically, up until publication. Please leave feedback, this is a work in progress! Thank you for your interest. For more information, please visit our Official Fire of... Continue Reading →

October 17, 2014 1

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑