Today around lunchtime there will be a reception on campus celebrating the tenth anniversary of the dedication of the Ruane Center for the Humanities–the reception will be held in the center’s Great Room, my favorite spot on campus. I’m on sabbatical and avoiding campus as much as possible, but I’ll be dropping by. It’s my building, after all. At least that’s how I’ve always thought of it. As the director ten years ago of the interdisciplinary, team-tuaght program that this... Read more
In our “Faith and Doubt” colloquium last spring, my Dominican priest colleague and I filled the syllabus with authors who have shaped our own perspectives on and continuing lives of faith. Many such authors on my list have made regular appearances in this blog over the past decade; Anne Lamott, Michel de Montaigne, Simone Weil, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Iris Murdoch, and Rachel Held Evans all made important appearances during the semester. My colleague’s influences included several who also are on my... Read more
The last text of the Spring 2021 semester–the last Covid-19 affected semester on my campus–in my “Apocalypse” colloquium was Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 post-apocalyptic novel Station Eleven. The apocalypse in question is the “Georgia flu,” a fast-spreading virus that kills over 99% of the human population. The story skips nimbly back and forth between the pre-and post-pandemic world; one of the many fascinating features of the novel is tracking how a person’s seemingly benign attitudes and beliefs take on... Read more
This summer’s blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer” has caused me to return to matters that used to be front and center in my professional life. Twenty-five years ago my professional writing and research interests were largely focused on the philosophical implications of various interesting and important issues in the sciences, particularly the theory of natural selection in biology and philosophy’s contributions to cognitive science (an interdisciplinary investigation of consciousness and the brain involving biology, neuroscience, physics, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and several other... Read more
It was just beginning to turn dimly light when I began to wake up. I laid as still as I could in the hope of catching a bit more sleep, knowing that Bovina’s radar is set for any early morning motion that might indicate it’s time for her walk. Then I heard something entirely unexpected. Woman 1: So in contrast to all of that statistical language, a word that seems to have felt so true to you early on is... Read more
The Ten Commandments from the book of Exodus is the lectionary reading from the Jewish scriptures tomorrow morning which, oddly enough, gets me to thinking about one of the most important Protestant theologians of the 20th century. Walter Rauschenbusch was an important voicee in the social gospel movement of the early 20th century, a movement within Protestantism that applied Christian ethics to social problems, particularly issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, unclean environment,... Read more
For most sports fans, this time of year is exciting. The baseball playoffs just started, the NFL season is only four weeks old . . . there are wall-to-wall opportunities to binge watch just about every day of the week. Not for me this fall, though. My beloved Red Sox missed the playoffs by finishing last in their division for the third time in four years, and my almost-as-beloved Patriots have started the season 1-3, including being blown out in... Read more
Today is the third day of October, and that’s a very good thing. I took Bovina for a walk on campus just before sunrise and was reminded of why I love this time of year. It felt like fall, no one was around (except lots of squirrels), and I was reminded of the many reasons why utumn is my favorite season and, for any number of reasons, October is my favorite month. This goes well beyond the beauty of autumn... Read more
My two sons have never thought that I look like a philosopher. This has been an issue ever since the late summer of 1988 when they arrived with Jeanne and me in Milwaukee where I began my PhD studies at Marquette University. They were nine and six at the time—I’m pretty sure they didn’t know what doctoral studies amounted to, but I told them that when I was done they would forevermore have to call me “Doctor Dad” and that... Read more
I saw a bumper sticker once that said “So many books, so little time.” I agree. Even though I sometimes feel as if I read for a living, the fear that I might live my allotted fourscore years and never get to read the greatest novel I’ve not yet read or the most profound play that has not yet crossed my path is palpable. At age 67, for instance, I’ve not yet read all of Charles Dickens’ novels. That worries... Read more
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