For the past many 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
As of next month, I will have been blogging for eleven years. As I suspect is true of many bloggers, I am obsessed with my blog statistics. This has been a problem over the past month or so because Google Analytics, which provides the numbers I am obsessed with, chose without my permission to entirely change the format of its information. I didn’t get to opt out–as of July 1, the old way went away and the new format showed... Read more
All of us live in a world filled with words. For academics, words are the tools of our trade. Even for introverted academics such as I am, the tendency both verbally and in writing is to think that the more words one uses, the better. One of the most difficult things I’ve had to learn during the decade-plus of writing this blog is how to be concise and how to introduce, develop, and complete an idea in no more than... Read more
It’s hard to believe that our corgi Bovina, the love and center of Jeanne’s and my life, is going to be two in September. It doesn’t seem like nineteen months ago that Jeanne and I drove eighteen hours straight from Atlanta to Providence with a six-week old puppy. People have asked me what Bovina’s “adjustment period” was when she arrived at her new home. There was no adjustment period. She walked into the house, said “I’m in charge,” and nothing... Read more
A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear one of my heroes give a talk. Jeanne had to be away for work that weekend; as I took her to the airport she expressed her disappointment at not being able to attend the talk with me. “I feel like I’m going to hear the Virgin Mary or something,” I said. What I heard that Saturday was a compelling and inspiring prophetic call to action. I first encountered Joan Chittister’s... Read more
Every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. George Washington, Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, RI Today is Independence Day–Jeanne and I are flying to spend three days with our son Caleb and daughter-in-law Alisha in Asheville, North Carolina. I’m not sure how they celebrate July 4th in Asheville, but research has revealed that Asheville has more micro-breweries per capita than any city in the United States.... Read more
Today’s reading from the Jewish scriptures is Genesis 22, the well-known and infamous story of Abraham’s (almost) sacrifice of Isaac. This story made several appearances last academic year in my classroom, from a week spent with Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling to a class on post-Holocaust Jewish theology. But I have most frequently used this familiar story in my ethics classes in tandem with another tale from four chapters earlier in Genesis. Both stories raise a question that is still pressing for... Read more
Teaching for thirty years in an interdisciplinary program with colleagues from a multitude of disciplines has provided me with the best that academe can offer a professor—a continuing education. In an academic world which so often demands narrower and narrower research focus and specialization from its members, it has been a gift to spend the majority of my career thus far at a college that welcomes breadth and encourages—and sometimes requires—its faculty to regularly wander outside their comfort zone in... Read more
One of my favorite passages from the Gospels is when Jesus is asked “Which is the greatest commandment?” He memorably answers, You shall hold correct beliefs about the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall convert your neighbors who do not hold correct beliefs, and if they will not convert, you shall defeat them in... Read more
Lead on King Eternal, the day of march has come Henceforth in fields of conquest Thy tents shall be our home Through days of preparation, Thy grace hath made us strong And now O King Eternal we lift our battle song. Many of the hymns of my childhood shared a common theme—we Christian believers are at war and must be prepared to do battle at any moment. From “Lead On, O King Eternal” and “Onward Christian Soldiers” through “Soldiers of Christ, Arise,”... Read more
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