It is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for a [non-Christian] to hear a Christian, supposedly giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these [scientific] topics, and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people reveal vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. One guess as to who wrote the above. Most likely a progressive Christian denying the authority of the Bible, right? How about this one? Darwin taught us... Read more
Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Each of the synoptic gospels, including today’s lectionary reading from Matthew, tells essentially the same story. Jesus takes his inner circle of Peter, James, and John to the top of a mountain where suddenly Jesus has a conversation with Moses and Elijah, while “his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.” The disciples are understandably frightened, but Peter still suggests that... Read more
As I continue early preparation for the book on the teaching life that I hope to write during my upcoming Fall semester sabbatical, I find myself considering many of the misconceptions that people outside of academia have concerning professors. One of these misconceptions, one that has become more and more prevalent over the past decade or two, is that although they present themselves as “experts,” academics are generally far more impressed with their knowledge and expertise than they should be.... Read more
On Valentine’s Day I am always challenged to think of something new to say for that year’s blog entry. I could say nothing, of course, but I’m a romantic at heart, so I always want to throw something into the mix. This year I’m thinking about something that is a challenge for many–the human soul. What is it? Is it anything at all? And if the soul does exist, how does one engage with it? In the spirit of Valentine’s... Read more
During my sabbatical semester over a decade ago at an ecumenial institute on the campus of a Benedictine university, I participated in morning, noon, and evening prayer almost every day with the monks at the large Benedictine abbey on campus. In the four months of my sabbatical we read the entire cycle of the Psalms two or three times. One of my favorites became Psalm 148, which tells us that [The Lord] executes justice for the oppressed [and] gives food... Read more
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. Baruch Spinoza My teaching colleagues and I were happy to learn during the spring semester last year that Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus had been banned by Tennessee’s McMinn County school board from its curriculum. Serialized from 1980-91, Maus won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for literature. When choosing the texts for our team-taught course, an interdisciplinary exploration of the twentieth century through literature, history, philosophy,... Read more
Truth isn’t sympathetic to our need for certainty or stability. Jared Enns, “The Bible for Normal People” There is a self-described atheist who regularly comments on this blog, usually to express his strong disagreement with suggestions that a conception of God might be something more than a myth or fairy tale. His most recent comment was in response to an essay I posted around Christmas titled “Why the Details of Jesus’ Birth Don’t Matter.” He observed that So, at least... Read more
One of the matters I am paying close attention to this semester, as I prepare for a sabbatical semester in the fall and my book project on the teaching life, is the ways in which the texts I am teaching have shaped me as both a college professor and a person. One of the courses I am teaching this semester is the fourth of a four-semester sequence required of all frewhmen and sophomores at my college as the heart of... Read more
In his biography of Leonardo da Vinci, Walter Isaacson tells us that one of the many fascinating things about Leonardo is that he did not fit the model of a solitary and tortured genius. Rather, Leonardo was an extroverted “people person” who loved bouncing ideas off other creative people, the sorts of folks he surrounded himself with in his studio and travelling entourage. Commenting on this, Isaacson writes that Unlike Michelangelo and some other anguished artists, Leonardo enjoyed being surrounded... Read more
I have a recently retired good friend and colleague in the philosophy department who has twin daughters. A number of years ago, during the summer between his daughters’ junior and senior years in high school, my friend and his family visited seventeen different college campuses. The young ladies in question, although twins, could not be more different in appearance or personality. Daughter #1, whose interests were predominantly focused on science, favored Dartmouth College but was also very interested in the... Read more
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