14 Comments

“The ultimate result, if Christians can free themselves from the myth of a lost golden age, may be something wilder and stranger than we can at present conceive, at once more primitive and more sophisticated, more anarchic in some ways and more orderly in others. ”

I am curious if you see any specific (if early) examples of this “wilder and stranger” future.

Expand full comment
author

No, not really.

Expand full comment

My delight is fixated on "jury duty." I pity the judge and jury and especially, dear Lord, the executioner. You shouldn't let on about anything. Let civics take its course and take the rare opportunity to observe and wrassle our poor comédie humaine.

Expand full comment
author

Last time I got kicked off for admitting during selection that I think the Anglo-Saxon adversarial jury system inferior to the French inquisitional tribunal system.

Expand full comment

I once got kicked off a jury pool because I would not assume the innocence of the defendant. I was open to it and willing to listen to the evidence but don’t want to go in with an a priori assumption either way. Also, were the police and prosecutors total idiots who had no reason to bring charges? Didn’t go over well with defense attorney, to say the least.

Expand full comment
author

With all respect, I think you were in error there. The presumption of innocence follows from the assumption that it is better that a guilty person be acquitted than that an innocent person be convicted. Thus the presumption of innocence obliges the prosecution to prove its case beyond a shadow of doubt, while the defense need prove no more than that the prosecution has not proved its case.

Expand full comment

Unless they were educated at LSU, the lawyers won't know what you're talking about. Just show up in a powdered wig, Empire-style cloisonné snuff box for added measure.

Expand full comment
author

I always do.

Expand full comment

Dear David, the popular apologetics YouTube channel Capturing Christianity hosted a debate between universalist Keith Giles and annihilationist Chris Date. Giles was woefully inadequate and unprepared. We need people like *you* to appear on that channel. Someone mentioned that the host has previously reached out to you. Is that true?

I know you are sick and tired of universalism debates. But the people need you!

Expand full comment

Hoping David will have something (anything) to say on this 😞

Expand full comment

Dear Prof. David Hart,

Hope to be excused for being insisting.

Your book ‘The experience of God’ has deeply and positively impressed me. As a deacon of The Orthodox Church of Ukraine and many years teacher of the catechetical school for adults, I perceive the vital importance of such thoughts and books.

That is why I would be glad to arrange a publication of this book in the Ukrainian language. Could I hope for further discussion of the topic?

Best regards,

Valentyn Prokopchenko

prokopchenko@gmail.com

Expand full comment

Do you think any thing could be added to "No Enduring City"? If I am not mistaken - and that is pretty much possible, since I can't find my Kindle right now- that one was a remarkable meditation on secularization as an aftereffect of Christianity, growing from its own viscerae, through the centuries.

Expand full comment
author

There is much that can be added, but there is nothing I would subtract.

Expand full comment