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Who Is Jesus to You? Cecile Mentor Interviews the Christian Philosopher Andreas Saugstad

By Cecile Mentor in collaboration with Andreas Saugstad

Andreas Saugstad is a Norwegian thinker who connects Christian mysticism, everyday experience, and philosophy in a personal way. At the heart of his work is a deep trust in Jesus, who, he believes, brings calm, hope, and meaning into the struggles of life. He often writes about how philosophy can empower people, helping them to live a more authentic life and to find joy in thoughtful reflection. Saugstad also isn’t afraid to challenge postmodern ideas or hyper-capitalist culture, and he defends a social justice view of society that values dignity and compassion. This interview was conducted in Oslo, Norway, in January 2025, but the message is eternal and relevant to everyone, no matter where they live.

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Voting for the Cage: How Fundamentalism Married Politics, Made Dissent a Sin, and Persuaded Citizens to Surrender Their Own Freedom

Democracy does not always die with soldiers at the doors of parliament. Sometimes it reports for duty on election day. The polls open on schedule. Ballots are counted honestly. The winner raises a sacred book, invokes an ancestral civilization, promises to protect the family, and begins deciding which families count. No voter writes “oppress me” on a ballot. The authoritarian vote is written in the future tense and addressed to somebody else. Silence them. Remove her choice. Keep him out. Close their school. Ban their book. Cancel their citizenship. Let the police decide which protest is patriotic, let the government determine which religion is authentic, which body is legitimate, which marriage is real, which history may be taught, and which citizen must forever prove a loyalty the majority receives at birth. People vote for a locked door because they are told they will keep the key.

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Hope Has No Shovel: Why We Fling Our Wishes at the Sky

Watch what the body does with a wish. The child inhales before the candles, holds the secret behind her teeth, then gives it to the room with one hard breath. Lovers press lips to a palm and push the kiss off the hand like a paper boat, up toward a window, a balcony, a departing train. A meteor scratches the dark and everyone beneath it makes the same silent motion, hurling a private want after a falling rock. Mourners lower the casket and lift their eyes. Whatever hope is made of, it has a launch angle, and the angle is up.

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The Silence Camus Refused to Domesticate: Hazel Barnes, The Myth of Sisyphus, and the Cost of a Sympathetic Misreading

Hazel Barnes was one of the most careful American readers of French existentialism in the twentieth century. She translated Sartre’s Being and Nothingness in 1956, a labor that shaped how generations of American students encountered Continental thought. When she turns to Camus, though, something interesting happens on the page. Her summary of The Myth of Sisyphus is partly accurate and partly an act of quiet translation in the other direction, pulling Camus toward a Sartrean humanism that Camus himself spent the last decade of his life resisting.

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Yourself is Enough!

Reflecting on the tapestry of human history, it is impossible to overlook the paramount influence religion has wielded in the formation of societies, civilizations, and cultural dynamics. While I express this understanding as an atheist, it’s crucial to honor all perspectives’ authenticity, even when they diverge from one’s views. Different people draw different meanings from various life aspects, and for many, religion serves as an unwavering beacon guiding them through life’s daunting maze. In this context, I’m aiming to explore a widening path in contemporary society; empowering self-driven lives, where belief in oneself takes precedence. It’s about ensuring that one realizes, “Yourself is Enough.”

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Best of David Boles, Blogs: Vol. 10 (2019) Waits for You!

If it’s the end of the year, then that means it is time, once again, to thank you for all soulful investments you have shared with us throughout the last 12 months! We now humbly ask you to continue to believe in us by purchasing the latest edition of — Best of David Boles, Blogs: Vol. 10 (2019) — to help us continue to protect the truth when covered in facts-of-lies and fits-of-dismay, and we do that every day, across all our communication platforms, to keep alive the right life of the mind.

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Advice for 2020 Democrats

Today, let’s offer some friendly advice to the Democrat nominee nation based on the results of the first debate, and inspired by things to watch for in the upcoming second debate. First, I was born in the middle of the country surrounded by waves of Republicans. I currently work on the East Coast and on the West Coast — and a lot of Democrats pay me a lot of money. I have experience flipping on both sides of this national dime, and the Democrat Party has a long way to go to defeat an anachronistic, charismatic, President who feasts on the gruel of the worst in humanity.

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