The seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is filled with the paradoxes and tensions that are required to define and depict modernity: Latin encircling King James English, the indigenous name Massachusetts subsumed by Nova Anglia, and the Native man always simultaneously noble and savage, inviting and threatening.

Julian Sieber on colonial modernity

The Massachusetts Bay Colony Seal is in and of itself a rather compact genealogy of modernity. The image is a discursive moment that actively constructs a sense of what it means to be modern, and it neatly highlights several important phenomena that cohere to underpin Western colonial modernity: seals/logos, the Bible, and the construction of “the Indian.”

Julian Sieber on colonial modernity

“The most significant recent embrace of the katechon comes from tech-billionaire student of Girard and Trump/Vance backer, Peter Thiel. The connection with Girard makes this latest iteration doubly provocative and in need of serious examination.”

Anthony Bartlett offers a genealogy of the katechon

“Girardian revelation is a necessary addition to the genealogies of the modern, not in any sense of religion making a comeback to contest the secular, but in a sense internal to the secular itself. ”

Anthony Bartlett on René Girard

They assembled a view of history as a raft to navigate the challenges of their modern world. As the 20th century wore on… that raft looked less and less secure, not stable enough to keep them afloat.

Paul Kurtz on liberal Christianity and the philosophy of history

Terence Sweeney explores the lessons of the genealogies of Christ.