The Day of Pentecost, next to Christmas and Easter, is undoubtedly the biggest single day on the Christian liturgical calendar. I was taught as a child that Pentecost is “the birthday of the church,” although I had no idea what that meant. One thing is clear, though—Pentecost marks the coming out party of the Holy Spirit. In John 3, perhaps the best-known chapter in the New Testament, Jesus is visited by Nicodemus, a Pharisee who is fascinated by what Jesus... Read more
Pastor Dan, the interim pastoral caretaker of the Lutheran church that Jeanne attends (and I do occasionally) started the new year texting some scripture verses daily (just the location–you have to look them up) to parishioners who are interested each morning followed simply by the invitation “Thoughts”? I don’t participate in the ensuing conversation that often, but a couple of weeks ago the prompt was “Psalm 1–Thoughts?” and I had to say something. Here’s how Psalm 1 begins as I memorized... Read more
In her spiritual memoir Still, Lauren Winner tells the story of a conversation between poet Anne Sexton and a Catholic priest who came to visit her while she was in a mental health facility. The title of Sexton’s eighth collection of poems, The Awful Rowing Toward God, reportedly came from this conversation. The collection was published a few months after she committed suicide. Anne began the conversation by letting the priest know that he was probably wasting his time: “Well,... Read more
I’m currently reading through my book Nice Work If You Can Get It for the first time in eighteen months. Here’s a section from Chapter Three: I do as little lecturing as possible in all of my classes, preferring discussion—preferably with opposing perspectives whatever issues happen to be our focus on a given day clearly presented. Given the power of social media and the toxic nature of social and political discourse over the past several years, it is not at all surprising... Read more
Alasdair MacIntyre, one of the most important philosophers of his generation, died last week at the age of 96. There are several MacIntyre scholars on my campus–I am not one of them. And yet his best known book, After Virtue, had a profound impact on my as a new teacher, an influence so strong that it changed both how I think about and how I teach ethics (which I do every semester). I tell that story in the second chapter of... Read more
Truth be Told A week or so ago Jeanne needed to go to a department store to make a clothing purchase related to an upcoming work event. There are few things less attractive to me than following Jeanne around in a department store (or a store of any sort), but the store she was driving to is in a shopping center where a Barnes and Noble is just a couple of stores down. I seldom go to a real bookstore... Read more
Memorial Day is a time to honor those who have made sacrifices over the years, including the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, to protect our freedoms. Memorial Day is also a good tme 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 for an... Read more
In a perfect world, I would never give a written final exam in any class that I am involved with. Since I frequently team-teach with colleagues who do not share my vision of a perfect academic world, many courses I am involved with have traditional final written exams. But in my own classes, at least those past the introductory level, final exams are oral. As I often tell my colleagues who are skeptical of the value of oral exams, I... Read more
That’s a wrap for another academic year, number 34 since I walked across a stage in May 1991 and received my PhD diploma. Where has the time gone? Commencement exercises were last weekend, final grades were submitted the weekend before that, I’ve even managed to set up the on line sites for all three of my classes next fall. Summer and returning to my book project awaits. The last academic event of the semester (other than commencement) is often a... Read more
Dear Graduates… Today is graduation day at Providence College, where I just finished my thirty-first year on the faculty. I have never had the privilege of addressing the graduates on their special day; if I did, I would say something like this: Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the most important, yet enigmatic and difficult, philosophers of the 20th century. The family into which he was born was fabulously wealthy, one of the most successful families in fin-de-siècle Vienna. Ludwig was... Read more
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