As a boy, if it was my turn to do the Bible reading in devotions, I dreaded the “son of” sections. There were names I did not know that are challenging to sound out for anyone, but given my difficulty pronouncing vowels, a constant embarrassment, the reading was hard. This is not, perhaps, the most serious childhood problem, but it was not fun, at all. All evils produce goods, given the deep beauty of God’s cosmos, and one good that… Read more
December 15, 2019
The Genealogies of Christmas
December 15, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
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December 14, 2019
To Fight is Noble
December 14, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport that the world affords. Most excellent friends in California shocked me today by sending a bronze art piece (1920!) of Theodore Roosevelt, a president I much admire, for The School. This gift was wonderfully timed. These are weary times in education where wearisome bureaucrats, often decent folk with limited imaginations, labor to dismantle education in the name of pragmatism while simultaneously embracing the ideology of the spirit of our age. Thus, in… Read more
December 13, 2019
To Dream is Hopeful, to Do Divine
December 13, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
God never dreams, He is all do. Humans, created in God’s image, begin in hope, grow in faith, act and so create. Hope suggests what desires might be good. Faith gives hope rational and experiential substance and when we act in this rational faith, inspired by God’s empowering love, we create something wonderful and new. At least some of the problems of our time come from the passage of the revolutionary, progressive, excited generation that believes to the managers, administrators, time servers, wage earners… Read more
December 12, 2019
What’s happening at Edgestow? (A Parody of a Bit of That Hideous Strength)
December 12, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
That Hideous Strength In his prophetic novel on culture, particularly on the state of education, CS Lewis describes the fall of a young academic, Mark Studdock. His decay is his fault, he longs for “the inner ring,” acceptance with the in-group. His first job is at Bracton College and the “progressive element” of faculty and administrators is determined to change things: more administrators, less scholars, fewer teachers, greater leftist ideology*. The focus of any planning is on size, power, and money. To… Read more
December 11, 2019
On Aunt Tilley and Christian Higher Education
December 11, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
“Aunt Tilley is coming,” he said and laughed. “Time to roll out the Christian stuff to keep that bequest coming.”* What did he mean? He meant that there were some old folks, people who did not “get it,” and did not wish to let “Christian U” find the future. The administrators wanted Aunt Tilley’s money, but knew if Aunt Tilley (“bless her heart”) knew what they were doing, then . . . . No. They told Aunt Tilley what she… Read more
December 10, 2019
How to Sell Bragdon Wood: Lessons in Leadership from “That Hideous Strength”
December 10, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
To: President Al Cibiades RE: Need to sell “Bragdon Wood” From: Acting President Currey (New Edgestow University) Thank you for writing. . . the rebuilding of the University is going wonderfully well. While the loss of the NICE is unfortunate, the benefit of starting all the colleges from “scratch” has been an exciting opportunity to finally get to where the University needed to go. And after all, our colleagues at the NICE were a mixed lot, some not understanding the… Read more
December 9, 2019
Complaining about 10-3: ‘Ware This, but Even More Beware This Leader
December 9, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
Packer fans can be demanding. If you do not care about sports, wait a bit, as the Packers reminded me of a human trait that is terrible when found in leadership. If you have a friend who cannot enjoy winning, that is hard, if the Boss is never happy: may the Lord God have mercy on your soul. On Winning, But Not By Enough My team, and as an owner of a Packer share, they are one five millionth my team, the… Read more
December 8, 2019
The Day After Devastation: After Pearl Harbor Kind of Day
December 8, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
Sometimes bad news seems to sneak up on you. On December 7th, 1941, a day that has lived in infamy and one really bad recent movie, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. For regular folks, this seemed sudden, but Washington should have been better prepared. In business, a giant like Kodak sneers at the competition (“Fuji? Snort!”), until one day bankruptcy comes to the Great Yellow Mother. The problem built up slowly, through years of “best practices” management, and… Read more
December 7, 2019
How a Pearl Harbor Happens
December 7, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
December 7th was a day that would live in infamy. The Empire of Japan was the malefactor, but a complacent and racist United States government was the enabler. Why remember Pearl Harbor? Japan is now a democratic ally under an enlightened Emperor. Only a few brave souls now remember “where they were” when everything changed because of Pearl. Pearl Harbor happened, but might have been avoided. The lives lost were precious and the ships sunk needed. While the United States won… Read more
December 6, 2019
Taking a Stick to Arius: On the Wonder of Strange Customs
December 6, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
Saint Nicholas took on the arch-heretic Arius and Christmas won. That’s the backstory of an odd college custom I will observe tomorrow. Many colleges have strange customs. Time passes, as it is want to do, and what was normal in one age, becomes eccentric in another. Donors can demand odd customs as can founders. The College at The Saint Constantine School has one such odd custom that goes back to the first year of existence: the destruction of a donkey piñata at… Read more
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