writing
...to seek "being and substance under the covering of accident and appearances"
- Thomas Merton
In my writing, I'm hoping to bring the underlying meaning and value of our lives and relationships more to light, to clarify them in their significance and in how our approach of them makes every difference. This concerns the development of our capacity for self-understanding and mutual understanding, our ability to see ourselves within the singular context of each person’s life narrative, and growth in loving each person as deeply as possible.
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So far, in my essays The Potential of the Human Heart and Right Relationship With Life, my focus has been on a foundational understanding of morality and human value – our basic conceptualization of what these things are, which informs our regard towards people and subsequent moral questions.
My hope is to establish a preliminary view of humanity that accommodates otherwise divergent beliefs, particularly whether theist or non-theist. Through a constant return to and affirmation of human value, as founded and expressed in love and goodness, I plan in the future to explore specific moral questions and other areas of human life.
​I encourage a slow and thoughtful reading of this material, contra to the ways we’ve become accustomed to diluting our time through superficial engagement with content. The subject matter is generally the hard-to-put-into-words stuff of meaning and significance, and I offer my thoughts as an occasion to think concretely about human context, our place within it, and our opportunity to do good and be good for others.​​
The Potential of the Human Heart is a philosophical meditation on what it means for human life to be good – both as an experience and as an underlying reality. Beginning with the vulnerability inherent in care, it traces how our sense of affirmation, lovability, and capacity for love form the basis of identity and relationship. The essay unfolds as a gradual widening of perspective: from the inner life of the self, to the shared context of human existence, to the redemptive processes of integration, suffering, acceptance, and forgiveness. Written in a contemplative mode rather than a purely analytical one, it invites the reader to encounter love and goodness not as abstract ideals, but as living realities that can be recognized, cultivated, and embodied in the moral project of an ordinary life.
This two-part essay explores how our conception of the highest good is meant to lead to personal transformation. It is also an effort to show how our conceptualization of God can serve as a point of convergence among people with differing worldviews, whether theist or non-theist. In the second part, I present moral idealism as the inherent basis of moral convergence and continuity across beliefs.
The effects of social media on personal and cultural integration.
The moral implications of profanity.
How the practice of charity frees us to be ourselves.
Another two-part essay – here I examine the problem of suffering from within the moral and spiritual horizon of the human person. I provide a few distinctions in the ways we construe human context and the possibility of faith in relation to suffering, and consider the implications of our metaphysical underpinnings.
How the ethics of sports can shape culture for the better.
Compilations of material generated during and since writing The Potential of the Human Heart and Right Relationship With Life, respectively. These include succinct reflections about God, society, human nature, relationship, virtue, and integration.