A bit of personal history and a small point: Once, just once, there was a splendid sick day. When I was a boy, Mom and Dad never questioned a request for a sick day. I did not like being sick and would get to school if at all possible. Going to school seemed my job and a man did his job: that was basic. There is good to this, but also folly. Once I remember needing to get to the bathroom, leaving... Read more
The great feast of the Ascension of the Lord is a summation of the entire Christian life. In the Ascension, we are reminded that this life on earth is not our final destiny. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ascended 40 days after His resurrection to prepare a place for us with His Father. That is our ultimate destination and should be the object of our thoughts, words, and deeds on a daily basis. However, this phronema or outlook concerning... Read more
Often we assume that those who know should decide and in one sense that must be true. We sometime confuse knowing about a thing, say science facts, with knowing what to do about a thing. A man can know all the there is to know about his friend, but still not love him well. Merit has a place, but being bright, well credentialed, is not everything. A meritocracy has limits. Often those who have earned the credentials, won the prizes,... Read more
I once decided that our future prosperity could be secured by purchasing Southern California real estate. This would provide a place for my parents to live and start a community of college students who could learn from them. My best deal was up the street from us. We would move into the house while students lived in our old home. The engineers inspected and gave us a thumbs up. The house was fine. The detached garage, it turned out, was... Read more
To be a parent is to let go: to teach another human being to think, choose, and live for herself. The rewards are very great as all my, now adult, children teach me. We do not always agree, but I always learn. This is good and beautiful. Both my daughters have taught me, tomorrow one of these wonder women has a birthday. Here is an example of what she taught me when she was so very small, Red Sox jersey... Read more
Where there is no music, there is no dialectic. Where there is no art, there is no education. This late spring early summer, I have turned my thoughts toward the centrality of music and the other fine arts for education. Music matters: the Church started teaching me this as a boy and Plato clarified my thinking as a young man. Later the mothers and fathers of the Church kept repeating as I read their writings that in this is our... Read more
Jesus was the master teacher, better at “Socratic dialogue” than Socrates. The Athenians began with (mostly) rich young men in one of the most educated cities in the Mediterranean world. Jesus walked with a much more diverse group of disciples, men, and women, rich and poor, and made them world changers. Socrates educated Plato, but the Lord Jesus walked with His students and gave Himself to them. Jesus created the Apostles: renewed them by allowing them to choose to become... Read more
God created humankind male and female. Each sex has a complementary role to the other and have different voices, a beautiful harmony, while both are fully human in essence. Sadly, evil people use differences to destroy, steal, and kill. When the female and the male voice are not expressed in the fullness of a life or society, then we do not hear the full voice of the Image of God. If a man, it is vital to think as a woman and... Read more
What if we turned from academic theology to “common theology?” Would we find intriguing ideas in the great conversation of a diversity of theology minds? Dr. Eric Holloway thinks so and he wishes us to think with him. Dr. Eric Holloway has a great texts degree, a MSc in Computer Science at the Air Force Institute of Technology and a PhD in Computer Engineering at Baylor University. Dr. Holloway: What if theology were a knowledge based discipline like philosophy, science... Read more
Thank God for the United States that liberated so many people in the Cold War. We remember those who died for our country in the long Cold War against Soviet tyranny and helped free Eastern Europe, while keeping South Korea, Taiwan and other countries independent. Thank God for those who tried to give the Vietnamese the same chance. Recently I sat with a man whose uncle was sent to a camp and beaten for not having communist views. The uncle... Read more
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