God is perfectly good, true, beautiful. I pause at that truth and shiver. What Plato glimpsed dimly, Jesus revealed perfectly. Oh! God! Every so often a crabbed soul asks why God wishes us to be thankful. Is God selfish? Is God narcissistic? Stop. Think. God is perfectly good, true, and beautiful, To even conceive that this might be true, sends shivers through me. God. How could I now be thankful? I know I cannot handle a full view, a complete understanding ever, of... Read more
“History” is not one story, but the stories of every human being who has ever lived. For a Christian, all people are created in the image of God, so all the stories count. Every person will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and get justice: on themselves, but also against their oppressors. Reality, acknowledged by Christian theology, shows people as capable of great good and great evil. No nation or political order is all good. None are all bad, though some... Read more
Insufferable calls to insufferable and so the Holiday survival guide is born. Somewhere a liberal gives tips on surviving conservative relatives, a conservative on how to nap through woke sermonizing. All are insufferable. Someone is already writing the “do not be too happy at the Holidays, because many are sad” while some other scribbler is writing “be happy at the Holidays if you wish.” The best of this genre, however, is the self-aware commentary that realizes that the sort of person... Read more
Thankfulness at a moment of loss seems odd. Am I glad for death, pain, or suffering? No. These things exist, because we and the devils have chosen badly. As a result, the cosmos is not what it should be. In the interconnected cosmos, even one error sets loose ripples, distorts and twists what was so beautiful that even the faintest hint of ugliness, hatred, or evil mars utterly what was and should be. Thank God, however, that the divine craftsman built well.... Read more
This is taken from my thoughts at a conference on Phillip E. Johnson’s work following his memorial service. Phillip E. Johnson never stopped thinking about what is true and so he never stopped thinking about and supporting what is called the “intelligent design movement.” He began to suspect that he would not personally see the broader culture move in the direction he favored, but he had hope because he thought truth would prevail. As a philosopher who first met him... Read more
This is taken from part of what I said at the memorial service for Phillip E. Johnson, Gandalf gone to the West. We celebrate the Christian life of Phillip E. Johnson. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. . .” Phillip E. Johnson shifted the dialog about the nature of reality from the origins of the cosmos to the origins of ideas and the mind that holds those ideas. Put... Read more
Of all the great things one can learn from Virgil’s Aeneid, and a great man like Dante could learn so much from Virgil that he could create a language and a cosmos from the inspiration, there is a small thing I learned, even as a person who does not know the beauty of the Latin and is no expert, by participating in a discussion listening to those who do know more. The Aeneid shows that there is more to life than meeting... Read more
Death comes and leaves blank spaces in our lives. Loved friends, mentors, and family leave and we “must endure their going hence.” How can we stand this? My mom reminded me today of an old hymn. She pointed especially to the third verse. This helped me as I bear “their going hence” appropriately: grieving, but not as those without hope, recollecting what is good, beautiful, and true. Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side Bear patiently the... Read more
In the Bleak Midwinter When a friend dies, or a relative, that person may have gone to a better place, but we have not. We may meet, but we miss them and the missing continues. As I grow older, I realize the missing grows until my own ending. This is a bitter truth of life. This cannot be softened. I am directing a play for a brilliant group of actors at The College and I miss my Aunt Karen. When my... Read more
Grasping for good things, can make us a bad thing. Imagine a church leader currying political favor to the point he hardly speaks of anything but his patronage. So it is now, so it was in Jane Austen’s time. A pastor’s daughter, she knew the good and the bad in ministry. Jane Austen lashes the false parson, the placeholder, the social climber, driving him out of the temple. Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Collins, one of the more odious parsons this side of... Read more
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