Dorothy Sayers wrote a nearly forgotten play The Emperor Constantine and reading this fine piece of work woke me up to the problem with an earnest and at times moving film on Saint Paul I saw this weekend. We went with wonderful folk, met even more great people, including a row of delightful nuns. I had a great time and owe the sponsors a debt for making a jolly evening: yet. This is not a bad film (see Legally Blonde II),... Read more
I learned a good bit from Trickster Chases the Tale of Education by Sylvia Moore. This is the best kind of book: helping me understand some things better, challenging things I think are true, and being wrong in some interesting ways. Don’t be confused classical friends: education begins in story. Plato begins his most famous story, the myth of the cave, because he wants to discuss education. From the moment I read Plato’s story, I have known that story telling and... Read more
Mary said “yes” to God. A woman’s consent was the pivot point of history. We are about to enter Holy Week, the time when the Church remembers Jesus’ last teachings, suffering, and victory over death. God was coming to heal the wounds between Heaven and Earth. He would not just judge us or forgive us from a distance, but come and be with us. He would feel what we felt and that included being born fully human. What if she... Read more
Satan Rules! It is on a record if you play it backwards! We used to laugh about these people while in Bible College, because they were fading fast. Now I discover that my present students have heard the stories of the censorious prigs, the Church ladies opposed to Tolkien and Larry Norman, so often that they think most of my generation joined them. No. The ex-effect is in effect. Nothing seems more certain than the stories of the used-to-be. “When... Read more
The new biography about rock musician Larry Norman by Greg Thornbury is an important text for understanding this American cultural moment. The book suggests that there were alternatives to the present condition of Protestant Christianity, an argument that fits my experience. If you are bewildered how we got here, wherever here is, then take and read. There are hints at a better way and hope that much that is good can be recovered. Norman tried to live as a Christian... Read more
Chancellor Greg Thornbury at The King’s College (NYC) has written a biography of the Jesus movement musician Larry Norman Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music. Let’s be plain: buy the book, now for the reasons. Thornbury presents an alternative possibility: a white Evangelical movement that did not develop a corrupt, racist, anti-intellectual sub-culture. I know he is right, because I am just enough older than Thornbury to always have been bewildered at what happened to the movement.... Read more
You cannot read the Bible well and not wish to help the poor and the powerless. If you see an older person, evil says “whatever,” the Bible says, “honor her.” If you meet a weak man, the bad bully, the Biblical strengthens his weakness. The starving gets food, the enemy love, the poor are not sent empty away. Christians can disagree on means, but not on ends. My home state of West Virginia has thousands of working poor, our duty... Read more
You cannot make a man a slave only enslave him, but what if you can tempt him to brutalize himself? Once a slaver is forced to use force constantly to maintain the system of slavery, the end of the system is close. Slavery needs a social system that makes bad choices attractive to those it wishes to enslave. The most effective system of slavery would be where the population is enslaved without realizing that they are enslaved and where they... Read more
Let’s begin any defense of Humanities departments by admitting that many Humanities programs at many colleges have gone quite mad. Forget political agendas, a graduate of a college should read, write, think, and be more numerate at the end of school. If one judges the content only by the notion of rigor, the intellectual chops required to master what is taught, more than a few programs have become intellectually simple-minded. Anyone fit to go to college who does not get an... Read more
The movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri tried too hard to be Best Picture. As a result, it failed, even if it left us with some very fine acting and some acting that was acting like very fine acting. This is a good movie, even if it distorts history and the region it describes by showing one side of it. The story is a fakery, as false as if Pollyanna was told to children as the truth. The difference is that everyone... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In