Jordan J. Ballor

Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; PhD, Calvin Theological Seminary) is director of research at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy at First Liberty Institute.

Posts by Jordan J. Ballor

August 08, 2005

The scientific study of consciousness

An article posted today at LiveScience explores the problems facing scientists who attempt to explain human consciousness in terms of human disciplines like physics or biology. According to the story, “Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist at Oxford University, believes that if a ‘theory of everything’ is ever developed in physics to explain all the known phenomena in the universe, it should at least partially account for consciousness.” Continue Reading...
August 08, 2005

The orange and the green

This review in the latest issue of Books & Culture by John Copeland Nagle, associate dean for Faculty Research and professor at the Notre Dame Law School, reflects on a book on the environmental history of China, by Mark Elvin. Continue Reading...
August 05, 2005

A little heat now, or a lot later?

Acton senior fellow Marvin Olasky writes about two examples of churches placing the needs of Christians and evangelism in the developing world above their own congregational comforts. In the first piece, Olasky discusses Mount Zion United Methodist Church just outside of Baltimore. Continue Reading...
August 05, 2005

‘They picked on the wrong Armenian!’

Check out this Seattle Weekly article, detailing the experience of Armen Yousoufian, who sought public disclosure of records in 1997 relating to “the proposed new Seahawks stadium, now called Qwest Field, which was built largely with public money.” Continue Reading...
August 04, 2005

Aces high or low?

If this isn’t a great example of power corrupting, I don’t know what is: see this Reuters report on an encomium to leader Kim Jong-Il on a North Korean website. Among Kim’s remarkable talents is his accomplishment of a “feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf by shooting 11 holes-in-one on the first round he ever played.” Continue Reading...
August 04, 2005

Tolerant evangelism

The abstract from an article in the latest issue of Dutch Crossing: A Journal of Low Countries, Volume 28, numbers 1/2 (Summer/Winter 2004), published by the Association for Low Countries Studies in Great Britain and Ireland: Edward Dutton, “Tolerant Evangelism. Continue Reading...
August 04, 2005

Shuttle support wanes

CBS News reports that “while a majority still thinks the Space Shuttle is worth continuing, the program receives its lowest level of support in this poll since CBS News started asking about it in 1986. Continue Reading...
August 03, 2005

Voluntary association and union politics

In light of the recent exodus from the AFL-CIO, Dr. Charles W. Baird examines the nature of labor unions through the lens of Catholic social teaching. “Catholic social teaching has supported labor unions as part of a general defense of freedom of association,” he writes. Continue Reading...
August 03, 2005

How to be a socially responsible investor

From SoYouWanna.com: “Socially responsible investing is when you take your beliefs and values and apply them to how you invest your money. This is also known as having a ‘double bottom line,’ because not only are you looking for a profitable investment, but also one that meets certain moral criteria and that lets you sleep well at night. Continue Reading...
August 02, 2005

Faith and works

The issue of the federal regulation of non-profit groups, including churches, has meshed with a number of other questions, including allegations of government discrimination against faith-based groups. Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, writes of an attack on funding for faith-based initiatives in the New York Times as “typical of what’s been happening in the press and in Congress. Continue Reading...