The 8:00 show at church is for early morning people and those who prefer silence to typical church music. That means me—I’m a regular, and every once in a while I get to serve as lector. One Sunday I read from Proverbs, a selection that included the verses that I used to dedicate my first published book to my mother: “She opens her mouth with wisdom . . . her children rise up and call her blessed.” The assigned Psalm my... Read more
Every year, between Pentecost and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the lectionary takes us through week after week of “Ordinary Time,” a seemingly endless stretch of Sundays in green during which there are few special celebrations, no Advent or Lenten introspection and expectation, no thrilling Christmas, Easter or Pentecost celebratory remembrances, just a bunch of green week after week after week. A friend of mine once claimed that Ordinary Time is her favorite part of the liturgical year. I told her... Read more
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) entry of 750 words or so per week in which they are to select 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.... Read more
The Disrupter-in-Chief threw a verbal grenade into a Rose Garden event with Mitch McConnell by his side a couple of days ago when he implied that while he has made it a practice to call the families of fallen soldiers, former President Obama and other former Presidents did not. Rather than jumping into the middle of this latest mess, I started thinking about ways in which we honor members of the military in this country–and what those ways might say... Read more
The truth will not set you free, but it will definitely mess your life up. A former student I love mystery novels; one of my favorite mystery authors is Jo Nesbø. He is an internationally bestselling author from Norway whose books have only started becoming available in the US over the past few years. Harry Hole, Nesbø’s main character in his long running police mystery series, is complicated and well outside the boilerplate fictional detective. Toward the end of one of the... Read more
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Ephesians 4:26 I confessed on this blog a couple of weeks ago that I hate Donald Trump; one of the many reasons for this is that he has an uncanny knack to make me angrier than just about any person I can remember over my six-plus decades of life. Do I Really Hate Donald Trump? This past week was a case in point. Over the span of a few days the... Read more
Human beings never behave so badly as when they believe they are protecting God. Barbara Brown Taylor Every time someone claims that we live in a country founded on “Christian principles,” I think of Benjamin Franklin. His Autobiography is often a text at the appropriate time in the interdisciplinary program I teach in—it’s short, pithy, no nonsense and quintessentially American. Exactly what I would expect from Ben. He doesn’t say a lot about organized religion other than to express his distaste... Read more
Every fall I spend a week with over one hundred freshman exploring the familiar but challenging stories of Genesis and Exodus. Each year I’m in a different place and the students have different interests, backgrounds, and prior experience with the texts, so each time “all things are become new.” Our frequent focus is on the problem of how to make contact with the most important force in the universe in a meaningful way when, virtually by definition, that force is unknowable. The... Read more
Autumn is my favorite season, and October is my favorite month. This is not surprising for a native New Englander—fall weather is the best that the Northeast has to offer and October has begun this year with a week’s worth of cloudless skies, reducing temperatures, turning leaves, and no humidity. I love it. But those of us fortunate enough to be living the academic life welcome October for more reasons than beautiful weather. By the time this month arrives, the... Read more
We seek retreats for ourselves in country places, on beaches and mountains . . . but that is altogether unenlightened when it is possible at any hour you please to find a retreat within yourself. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations There are many modern conveniences that Jeanne and I could at least try to do without for a while. For instance, over a year ago our almost-twenty-year-old dishwasher finally decided to give up the ghost. It has been residing in our kitchen since we... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In