I received a note recently with a question about something I wrote on the subject of gravitas. (You can read the original article here.) This isn’t the first time I’ve been contacted about that article. Once an officer in the United States Marine Corps went out of his way to let me know that the article was being circulated among the officers at his base. I was gratified to hear that. I don’t think of myself as an authority on... Read more
I suspect that both the apologists for Calvinism and its detractors misunderstand its appeal. It isn’t so much the formula of its doctrine that draws people in as its aesthetic. I haven’t thought this through entirely; this is more an impression than any argument. Let me try to explain. Calvinism has two sides, a side we’re all familiar with, a light-side so severe it hurts the eye, and another side, a shadow-side. It’s on that side that a power hides... Read more
Well, I’m heading down to Baltimore for the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. (It looks to be a good one, we’ll have Rod Dreher with us and he’ll be addressing the Benedict Option.) I’ll miss my front porch. It’s where I drink coffee and read each morning. This time of year traveling is a sacrifice. I will get to spend some time with a few of my friends from Front Porch Republic while I’m at the... Read more
Are men obsolete? In her book, The End of Men and the Rise of Women, Hanna Rosin answers that question with an enthusiastic, yes! She has a point. Our institutions have grown so large and comfortable that the very manliness that brought them into being now seems out of place within them. Today, traditional masculinity exists almost entirely on the periphery. The men who embody it best patrol distant battlefields, fight fires in the wilderness, tunnel beneath the earth in... Read more
I actually had a Dos Equis for no other reason than The Most Interesting Man in the World said he preferred it. Upon hearing the news that the world’s most interesting man had taken a one way rocket to Mars I wept. (By the way, he could have taken the beer with him without great loss. Meh.) He had joined my pantheon of masculine gods, along with The Man With No Name and MacGyver (the original). Have you ever wondered why beer... Read more
Last time I mentioned a “small signal” from Luke 11:11, “…it was already late.” I might have missed that signal if it was the only one. But there are a few other signals that harmonized with it and help to make that initial signal stronger in my ear. I’ll list them here to show how the signal in my inner ear transformed into a narrative thread before my inner eye. First, it follows the Triumphal Entry. Only the most myopic... Read more
I picked up, The Art of Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter after I finished my last post. I was familiar with Alter, of course. I own his translation of the Pentateuch, The Five Books of Moses. Believe it or not, I hadn’t read The Art of Biblical Narrative. Nonetheless, I wasn’t surprised when I read,… “…in many cases a literary student of the Bible has as much to learn from the traditional commentaries as from modern scholarship. The difference between... Read more
A retired pastor complimented me on my preaching yesterday. He expressed amazement at my approach, particularly how I draw out threads that hold apparently disparate things together in the texts I preach from. This is something I think about a lot. And it is one of the things that I listen for in the preaching of others. But I seldom hear it. And I wonder, how do people miss them? It’s not really all that difficult, in my opinion. These... Read more
“Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.” Rod Dreher is well known for his interest in the Benedict Option. I share that interest, but there are times I despair for it. It’s a group effort after all. But what do you do when you’re group-less, when you’re as... Read more
I concede that many enthusiasts for multiculturalism mean well, I know that was the case for me back in the days when I was one of them. But if outcomes are the measure, I think it is fair to say, multiculturalism is assimilation by stealth. A little personal background Depending upon when you date the initial appearance of multiculturalism, you might say I was an early adopter. Back in the late 1980s I was involved with what was then called,... Read more
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