Jazz is many things and takes many forms, and I’ve spent a lot of time in the last 40 years listening to every imaginable form of jazz— Big Band Jazz, traditional New Orleans jazz, classic trio jazz, jazz fusion, avant garde jazz and a host of other forms this sort of music takes. One of the reasons to do this is precisely because it is genuinely American music almost the only major form of music essentially created in our culture,... Read more

Here below is what Wiki has to say about the celebration of Epiphany. I will simply point out that in all such traditions it is recognized that the magi showed up in Bethlehem considerably later than the time of the birth or the visit of the shepherds. Indeed, the Matthean account intimates it could even be a year or so later, since Herod plans to slaughter all children 2 years and under.  Traditionally,  the first Sunday in January is Epiphany... Read more

Here’s a shot of us at the Kentucky Horse Park where they had an amazing Christmas lights display.   Read more

The Christology of Mark’s Gospel has been a flashpoint for scholarly debate for a very long time indeed, not least because it is in all likelihood the earliest of the canonical Gospels.  It has especially been fodder for those who subscribe to the notion of some sort of  dramatic evolution of Christological thinking beginning with low Christology (Jesus the divinely empowered prophet or sage, but nonetheless purely human) to high Christology (Jesus as both God and human being),  with Mark... Read more

  Obviously, there are many movies made about war that are graphic, that make clear that war should not be glorified, especially by Christians, and that war, while in some cases seems to be a necessary evil to prevent something worse, is never a good thing.  Never, not least because lots of innocent lives (which should never be called collateral damage) will be lost.  In my own lifetime, there has not been a single war the U.S. has been involved... Read more

Here is a fine article courtesy of our friends at the NY Times.  See what you think. BW3   Why Jesus Never Stopped Asking Questions By Peter Wehner Mr. Wehner, who served in various roles in the three Republican administrations before the Trump administration, is a contributing Opinion writer. He attends McLean Presbyterian Church in McLean, Va. Malcolm Muggeridge, the renowned 20th-century social critic and British journalist, was an unlikely convert to Christianity. For most of his life, he was an... Read more

  This resolution is directed at the readers of this blog more than me, since I don’t play such games and I read a ton of good books and review them.  Speaking of which, I have a good book you should read on the subject of the atoning death of Christ and it is very short! A good place to start is with the interesting dialogue between Tom Wright and Simon Gathercole which was held at the last Greer-Heard Forum... Read more

At the risk of getting shot, I will say up front, I liked the multiple universes, and multiple iterations of various characters in the film.  Let me be clear that this movie is long— 2 hours and 28 minutes, and some of the intense scenes are not very appropriate for young children. This is not a cartoon, it’s more like an adult video game in some of its CG scenes.  The bad guys— especially Doc Ock and the Green Goblin... Read more

What could be better on my 70th birthday than hearing a full Steely Dan concert live……. well, here’s the second best thing.   Read more

No, my wife and I have not entered the transfer portal, or the gate into the great Beyond. It is however true that I have now lived through 70 years of life.  I share a birthday with sports legends— Sandy Koufax, my childhood pitching idol, Michael Jordan, my homeboy Tar Heel, LeBron James, and yes Tiger Woods. I’m older than all of them, except Sandy. I was never a sports legend. I was a pretty decent basketball player in junior... Read more