We just finished up this year’s theological symposium on science and theology on the Concordia Seminary campus. Presentations on quantum physics, ecology, and neuroscience (free videos of which will be up on the Seminary’s iTunes U site shortly) and other issues have left my brain oozing, but also with a couple of observations…

Concordia Seminary’s 20th annual Theological Symposium is September 22-23 , and this is the issue at hand. “Science and theology” isn’t necessarily anything new, although the dialogue between the two has often been tenuous at best.

Concordia Seminary’s 20th annual Theological Symposium is September 22-23 , and this is the issue at hand. “Science and theology” isn’t necessarily anything new, although the dialogue between the two has often been tenuous at best. But the ‘new questions and new conversations’ certainly is.

Anselm of Canterbury, under glass Feed your inner philosopher by checking out this column by Nathan Schneider on the “Happy Days” blog at the NY Times. If you want to go further outside the box, check out the provocative religion blog that Schneider edits: Killing the Buddha . Anselm of Canterbury was the eleventh century philosopher and theologian who famously articulated what we now know as his ‘ontological’ proof for God

Those of you who attended Dutch 10 year-old Jacob Bodden’s concert heard him live. But for everyone else, Post-Dispatch/STLtoday.com photographer Stephanie Cordle put together a “Mixed Media” video that includes footage of him playing in the carillon booth

Luther Tower, home to Concordia’s landmark carillon TOMORROW (Wednesday, Aug 12) at 7:00PM, Jacob Bodden, a 10 year-old boy from Amersfoort, Holland, will give a free carillon concert at Concordia Seminary . After taking carillon lessons for only a year and a half, Jacob has played concerts at the Belgium Monument in Amersfoort, the Munt Tower in Amsterdam, and the tower in Hilvarenbeek. Last summer, he was interviewed and filmed in Amersfoort for being the youngest carillonneur in the Netherlands

Photo credit: Evan Agostini, AP I’m watching the television tributes to the original news anchorman, Walter Cronkite. Growing up, the “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite” was a nightly ritual in my family home. And I am remembering that night as a young child when I watched Cronkite sign off (and that’s the way it is) for the last time

That’s the title of a summer workshop I will be leading later this month (July 27-29) at Concordia Seminary. It’s a topic I’ve studied, talked, and thought about for a long time. Peter Mead, senior editor at Creative Communications for the Parish , will lead some of the presentations too

Simon Critchley, in action Philosopher Simon Critchley writes a thought-provoking reflection on happiness on the”Happy Days” blog on nytimes.com . The ancient Greek proverb above is his launching point into thinking about happiness, death, and the prospect of an afterlife

Giotto’s “Saint Francis preaching to the birds” This is my very first Father’s Day as both a son and a father. Other than the blazing heat that feels more like August than June, it has been a very good day. When we found out we were expecting, a good friend and fellow writer who is also a father urged me to write down thoughts and events as much as possible, as a kind of fatherly discipline.