The namesake of my wife’s parish is the Good Samaritan.  So I have been more alert to that great figure in the teaching of Jesus than I might be otherwise.  Of course, the Samaritan has a proverbial and cross-cultural hold on our minds — so he commands a bit of attention all on his own.  [...]

When I was a teenager I loved reading biographies.  (I still do in fact, but I have much less time to devote to it.) One of the things that fascinated me was the way in which people died.  It was probably a precocious neurosis, but in looking back on it, I think my preoccupation with [...]

Orthodoxy has become a dirty word.  It is treated as a synonym for “narrow,” “unthinking,” “uncharitable,” “mean-spirited,” “backward,” and “benighted.” But at root, orthodoxy is not about labeling things right for the sake of labeling them — much less labeling other things “wrong.” It’s about accountability to something and — even more importantly Someone beyond [...]