Tag Archives: monsters

Potency, Act, and the Withdrawal of Grace: Thomas Aquinas on Original Sin

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Santi Tafarella

Here’s Thomas Aquinas in Summa Contra Gentiles, Book IV, ch. 52: “[We Christians] affirm that man was, from the beginning, so fashioned that as long as his reason was subject to God, not only would his lower powers serve him without … Continue reading →

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Monster with Big Testicles in House Next Door

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Santi Tafarella

Quite a thing to discover. A man who participates in neighborhood barbecues also kidnaps and imprisons women. This is Hannah Arendt’s “the banality of evil” right next door. Charles Ramsey gives a compelling interview on his rescue of Amanda Berry: … Continue reading →

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Getting a Handle on Kant’s Distinction between the Beautiful and the Sublime

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Santi Tafarella

Contained in Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) Critique of the Powers of Judgment are his reflections on beauty and the sublime. Beauty, writes Kant, can be defined as something that is good in itself that pleases the eye; it is absent any utility … Continue reading →

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A clever ad worth seeing

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

This ad demonstrates the ways in which people at once reveal and conceal their physical traits and personas  to others online: Who are you, really?

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For Halloween, a Super Freak Comes to the Rescue (of Evolution)?

Posted on October 31, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Sometimes we think that if we could just have a stunning visual demonstration of something we believe in, that it would convince the nonbelievers in our midst. So it is that alien enthusiasts fantasize about UFOs on the White House lawn, and Evangelical … Continue reading →

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“The Vampire” (A Poem by Santi Tafarella)

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

                    She calls it love at first sight,   so I’ll play with her cliche,   let it trip and tickle back to her   upon my tongue, tease her with … Continue reading →

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Our Monsters, Ourselves

Posted on November 27, 2008 by Santi Tafarella

The MONSTEROUS plays an enormous role in literature and the human imagination—from the Book of Revelation and Dante’s Inferno to Nosferatu and Mad Monster Party. It also plays a large role in politics—as in the demonizing, by the far right, of Barack … Continue reading →

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Has McCain Created a Rogue Monster?: With Just Ten Days to Go, CNN Reports That Sarah Palin, with an Eye to 2012, is Breaking Free of Her McCain Handlers, and Saying What She Wants

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Santi Tafarella

Hillary Clinton’s campaign also started to implode with recriminations at the end, and it looks like McCain’s is doing the same. Money quote from CNN today: Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with … Continue reading →

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Book Review of “Spectacles of Empire: Monsters, Martyrs, and the Book of Revelation”

Posted on August 30, 2008 by Santi Tafarella

Christopher Frilingos’s Spectacles of Empire: Monsters, Martyrs, and the Book of Revelation (University of Pennsylvania Press 2004) is a great academic text about the Book of Revelation, but it is also a fascinating uncovering of Roman cultural curiosities. The author, for example, … Continue reading →

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