Over at HuffPo Religion, Pete Enns wonders whether God speaks to him and others through fiction. Although Enns is discussing “a non-literal interpretation of the bible,” which raises critical and unresolved issues of reader-responses and interpretive communities, my guess would be that if he did write, evidence for it can be found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s [...]
Tags:bible·cosmology·fiction·Gandalf·interpretive communities·J.R.R. Tolkien·L. Ron Hubbard·literalism·Pete Enns·reader response theory·Roland Barthes·Scientology·Stanley Fish·The Lord of the Rings·The Silmarillion·Tolkienism
Today, while examining the key word searches that have led people to this blog, I noticed this interesting query: “Are tea partiers psychotic?” This Google search must have pulled up my post “Tea Parties and Monkey Gods,” in which I observed that Tea Partiers seem to be animated by a toxic combination of anger and [...]
Tags:anger·angst·autonomy·dependence·faith·fantasy·fear·fiction·free markets·fundamentalists·Hegel·identity·imaginary·individualism·J.M. Bernstein·libertarians·metaphysical·metaphysics·paranoia·Pierre Bourdieu·psychotic·rage·religious right·structuralism·sturm und drang·Tea Party·The Stone
For those who read novels, you know the sensation: it feels like you are present in the story and in the minds of the characters. This special and captivating experience is unique to humans and is attributable to what cognitive scientists call “theory of mind.”
In a previous post, I noted how theory of mind appears [...]
Tags:fiction·theory of mind
