A few days ago as I walked onto campus I was struck by a distinctive scent wafting on the breeze. Somewhere on the olfactory spectrum between a pristine pine forest and an overpowering air freshener hanging on the rear-view mirror of a car, this scent had rotting organic material tones, with the tangy hint of chemicals. “I love the smell of mulch in the morning! Spring has actually arrived!” There are a number of interesting sights as well as smells... Read more
Thirteen-and-a-half years after starting this blog, I find myself thinking and praying about its future path. Here are some of the things I’ve been thinking about–at the end of this reflection, I’ll describe briefly a few important changes that will be coming in the next few weeks. During a sabbatical seventeen (!) years ago, I began writing in a personal, non-academic essay style that was a sharp break from the academic writing that I had been doing (because I had... Read more
In my ethics class last Thursday we began our final unit of the semester: Gun violence. First up was an essay by Simone Gubler called “Philosophizing with Guns.” She wrote it while she was a doctoral student in philosophy at the University of Texas, reflecting on a Texas “campus carry” bill signed into law a few months earlier that specifies libraries, offices, and classrooms on campus as “concealed carry zones”-areas in which people with concelaled handgun licenses may carry their... Read more
All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change These lines begins are the opening lines in “Earthseed: The Books of the Living,” a collection of notebooks compiled by Lauren Olamina, the main character in Octavia Butler’s dystopian, frighteningly believable vision of the near future, Parable of the Sower. Lauren is a late teen who lives inside a gated community with her Baptist preacher father, family, and neighbors,... Read more
The Second Sunday of Easter is always “Doubting Thomas Sunday,” an opportunity for me to return to and reflect on one of my favorite characters from the gospels.Thomas was the disciple who was absent when the risen Jesus appeared to his fellow disciples for the first time. Thomas refused to believe their story, famously saying that “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand... Read more
Easter Sunday–the most triumphant day on the Christian liturgical calendar. According to New Testament scholar and theologian N. T. Wright, “The practical, theological, spiritual, ethical, pastoral, political, missionary, and hermeneutical implications of the mission and message of Jesus differ radically depending upon what one believes happened at Easter.” That very well may be true–and it’s a problem for me, since I’m not sure what I believe happened that day. I believe in resurrection. I believe in the beauty of the... Read more
During the college basketball season, we occasionally watch a replay of the Providence Friars’ most recent game (when we win) the next day. The moment to moment drama can be tense in replay, even when we know what the outcome will be. We never watch a loss the next day—why submit ourselves voluntarily to an experience that we know ends badly? Even the worst of times can be weathered and perhaps appreciated when one knows that things work out in... Read more
I know that today is Wednesday in Holy Week, but it is also April Fools Day. It’s the perfect occasion to ask an important question: Did Jesus ever laugh? One of the many enjoyable occurrences at the end of each semester is occasionally receiving thank-you notes from students. Often they come from quiet students who said little in class but eloquently mention a moment or a text from the semester that made a difference or that will stick with them.... Read more
Today is Palm Sunday, one of the most dramatic days on the liturgical calendar. But there is one reported event attributed to Palm Sunday that makes an appearance in the liturgy every Sunday. And each time I say or sing this part of the liturgy, I remember a beloved colleague. Rodney Delasanta was one of best teachers and colleagues I ever had the privilege of knowing. Rodney was a true Renaissance man—a Chaucer scholar, family man, sports fan (especially the... Read more
Today I am starting a unit on race issues in my ethics class. For the past several years, I have assigned a blog post from the height of the pandemic as the starting point for that unit, a post titled “I’m White, I’m Privileged, and I’m a Christian. Now what?” Here it is. During the past month, in the context of protests for racial justice and police reform in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, I have come... Read more
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