Not long ago, my wife Jeanne decided to audit a graduate theology course on campus taught by a good friend who is an emeritus professor of theology. The course was “The Prophetic Faith,” described as a study of “the prophetic writings of Ancient Israel, examining both their original message and their relevance for contemporary readers.” After looking over the syllabus, I thought it would be fun to sit in on this class as well. I’m glad I did, at least for a... Read more
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, have often wondered why the divine is so apparently unavailable, so frequently silent. I, as many people of faith, have often assumed that this silence is my fault—especially since various people in my life since my youth... Read more
Imagine a jigsaw puzzle, a thousand pieces or more. There is no box showing what the completed puzzle will look like. But that’s okay, because this is an unusual puzzle. The various pieces can fit together in many different ways, producing any number of possible finished pictures. The puzzle assembler has to decide, early on in the process, what she or he wants the finished product to look like; each subsequent choice about which pieces to join together is guided... Read more
I recently found out from the editors of Bearings Online, an online magazine that I contribute to regularly, that one of my essays from last summer was their fourth most popular article of 2018. Yay! I wrote it around Independence Day last year, but on this day after the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, the topic continues to be relevant . . . Is America a Christian Nation? Should it Be? Read more
There are so many things that Vice President Mike Pence could be deeply offended by. That the man who talked him into running on his ticket in 2016 has turned out to be the worst President, hands down, in the history of this country. Mike Pence could be deeply offended that he is impotent to do anything about the government shutdown that is driving thousands of government employees to food pantries just to get enough food into their families and... Read more
During summer orientation for freshmen, I often help the director of the Honors Program on my campus with orientation for the incoming Honors freshmen. At the heart of my college’s core curriculum is the Development of Western Civilization (DWC) Program, a twenty-credit required interdisciplinary course that all students, regardless of their major, take over the first four semesters of their time on campus. It’s an ambitious program that is team taught by faculty from the philosophy, theology, history, and literature... Read more
We ought not to hide from ourselves that Nazi Germany is a mirror for all of us. What looks to us so hideous is our own features, but magnified. Simone Weil in 1937 Yesterday was the Spring 2019 semester’s first day of classes on my campus. Tomorrow will be the first meeting of one of my favorite courses, an interdisciplinary colloquium that I team-teach with a colleague from the history department: “‘Love Never Fails’: Grace, Truth, and Freedom in the Nazi... Read more
Last June, When Christianity Becomes an Angry and Fearful Faith Read more
Why do intelligent people believe lies that are easily exposed as lies? Why do intelligent people treat facts as disposable opinions? These are questions as current as today’s news. This past week we were served a steady diet of a national emergency that isn’t an emergency, supporting numbers that are easily shown to be fabricated, and occupants of the highest offices in the land saying things with a straight face that anyone with a computer can verify as false within... Read more
Each week for many years, Garrison Keillor told “Prairie Home Companion” listeners the news from Lake Wobegon, where “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” I’ll bet the Holy Family was like that. Lots of people think their children are well “above average”—hence, the bumper stickers in which parents boast that they are the “Proud Parents of an Honor Student at _________.” Everyone thinks their child is precocious and the smartest/best... Read more
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