The Message of Pentecost: God Is Not Angry At Us

Last updated on: June 7, 2019 at 8:05 pm By Vance Morgan

Jeanne and I watched a documentary not long ago called “Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action,” created, filmed and directed by a man with the fabulous name “Velcrow Ripper.” He is the cousin-in-law of a colleague and friend of Jeanne’s who made the recommendation. The movie was beautifully constructed and filmed, as well as being very thought-provoking. The central thread of the documentary traces various ways in which people seek spiritual growth and reality that are seldom located in traditionally religious... Read more

The Greatest Task of All is to Live

Last updated on: June 6, 2019 at 7:45 am By Vance Morgan

For the past several years my upper-division (juniors and seniors) classes have included an ongoing writing assignment that I call the “Intellectual Notebook.” Students are required to make at least one (preferably two) entries of 750 words or so per week, selecting a portion of an assigned text as the jumping off point for an open-ended reflection on what the passage makes them feel and think about, as well as what connections they can make. I describe my reasoning behind... Read more

When Christianity Becomes an Angry and Fearful Faith

Last updated on: June 6, 2019 at 10:15 am By Vance Morgan

At its best, faith is the overflow of gratitude, the attempt to live as if we are loved, the fragile hope for something better on the other side of pain and death. And this feather of grace weighs more in the balance than any political gain. Michael Gerson One of the great liberating moments of my life was when I was given the opportunity as an undergraduate at a secular liberal arts college to read, analyze, critique, and appreciate the Bible... Read more

Passing the Baton: An Ascension Sunday Reflection

Last updated on: May 29, 2019 at 7:45 pm By Vance Morgan

A disturbingly common mishap in recent Summer Olympic games has been the failure of U.S. track and field relay teams. Individually, these teams almost always are made up of the best runners, top to bottom, of any nation’s relay contingent. Best times, best individual win-loss records. But great individuals do not a successful relay team make. In a relay race, each runner is required not only to run her or his lap as swiftly as possible, but also to hand... Read more

Happiness is Overrated, but Learning to Live Well is Not

Last updated on: May 27, 2019 at 3:44 pm By Vance Morgan

It is the happy life that asks more of us than we realize we have and then surprises us by enabling it in us. Joan Chittister Is there any human state or condition more elusive, or more difficult to define, than happiness? Aristotle, my top candidate for the greatest philosopher in the Western tradition, famously wrote that every human being above all wants to be happy—they just disagree about the definition of the term. As our culture generally defines happiness, it... Read more

Say Something Profound

Last updated on: May 26, 2019 at 8:40 pm By Vance Morgan

At the end of each academic year, I tend to reflect back on the past few months for permanent takeaways, experiences and students that will remain with me long after the classes are forgotten and the students have graduated. Being a college professor (and, I suspect, being a teacher of any sort) is a lot like the parable of the sower in Matthew’s gospel. I throw the seed out there indiscriminately on a daily basis, hoping that on occasion it... Read more

Do You Want to Be Made Well?

Last updated on: May 26, 2019 at 7:36 am By Vance Morgan

Anyone who reads this blog regularly or even occasionally knows that I love movies. Solidly in my top ten, maybe even in the top five, is the 1989 film “Field of Dreams.” About half way through the story, Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) and Terrence Mann (played by James Earl Jones) are in the bowels of my beloved Fenway Park. Ray has brought Terry there in an attempt to involve him in a ludicrous scheme that Mann is trying... Read more

A Question for Memorial Day Weekend: Is Democracy Overrated?

Last updated on: May 23, 2019 at 4:45 pm By Vance Morgan

It is Memorial Day weekend, a great time to honor those who have made sacrifices over the years, including the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, to protect our freedoms. It is also a good time to pause and consider how well we are living out the freedoms that these sacrifices were made for. In an early season episode of House of Cards, then Vice President Frank Underwood, fresh off another policy victory energized by skillful manipulation and lying, turns toward the camera... Read more

When God Is Silent

Last updated on: April 28, 2022 at 12:15 pm By Vance Morgan

Every religion which does not confirm that God is hidden is not true. Blaise Pascal One of the most fascinating and troubling verses in the Jewish scriptures is from the book of Proverbs:. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, and the glory of kings to search it out.” I, as many people of faith, often wonder why the divine is so unavailable, so frequently silent. I, as many people of faith, have often assumed that this silence... Read more

Rise, Kill, and Eat: A Story About Learning to See Things Differently

Last updated on: May 20, 2019 at 7:12 pm By Vance Morgan

Iris Murdoch was one of the philosophers whose work was front and center in my upper division course in contemporary philosophy that ended a couple of weeks ago. She is a fascinating figure, an internationally respected philosopher who, at the height of her career, left academia to write novels full time. She ended up writing twenty-six of them, extraordinary investigations of the complexities and messiness of human relationships and commitments. Murdoch claimed to be an atheist, but she also believed... Read more