Martha or Mary? Type A or Type not-A?

Last updated on: April 2, 2022 at 10:40 am By Vance Morgan

The stereotype of the Type A personality has become an entrenched part of cultural lore. Originally described by two cardiologists in the 1950s as the type of person who is most likely to experience cardiac arrest, Type As are familiar to everyone. Competitive, short-fused, action oriented, no nonsense, humorless, deadline driven, boundless in energy—these are people who not only don’t stop to smell the roses, but tend not even to notice the existence of the roses as they plow through... Read more

Jesus on April Fools Day

Last updated on: March 28, 2022 at 9:26 am By Vance Morgan

I know it’s the middle of Lent, but tomorrow is April Fools Day. It’s the perfect occasion to ask an important question: Did Jesus ever laugh? One of the many enjoyable occurrences at the end of each semester is occasionally receiving thank-you notes from students. Often they come from quiet students who said little in class but eloquently mention a moment or a text from the semester that made a difference or that will stick with them. The bookshelves in... Read more

Wild West Ethics

Last updated on: March 28, 2022 at 12:59 pm By Vance Morgan

Bein’ born is craps. How we live is poker. Doc Holliday Of the dozens of novelists whose books I have read over the years, Mary Doria Russell is one of my least likely favorites. I’m not a big science fiction fan (I much prefer mysteries), but her debut novels The Sparrow and Children of God, about a Jesuit missionary expedition in outer space (you can’t beat Catholics in space!) are both beautifully written and thought-provoking. Dreamers of the Day, set... Read more

On the Days when I Believe . . .

Last updated on: March 27, 2022 at 8:04 am By Vance Morgan

After spending six and a half decades in the middle of this faith thing, one would think that I might have made some definitive conclusions about faith and real life by now. After all, that’s what the decade of this blog’s existence has been about. But I am continually reminded that any attempts to “figure faith out,” by me or anyone else, are doomed to failure. “Doomed” not because faith can’t be figured out. “Doomed” because, as we philosophers might... Read more

Have Yourself an Introspective Day

Last updated on: March 23, 2022 at 8:45 pm By Vance Morgan

In our three years in Milwaukee, our first years together as a married couple trying to cobble a functional stepfamily together, Jeanne and I set our radio alarm to NPR, which would awaken us every morning at six o’clock. The early show was classical music, hosted by a local public radio fixture with the comforting and dulcet tones of an educated uncle. As we emerged into the day from sleep, the host would provide a brief weather report before queuing... Read more

The Will of God: How to Know It?

Last updated on: March 20, 2022 at 6:23 am By Vance Morgan

Midterm grades are due on my campus by midnight Wednesday; last Wednesday was the official midpoint of the semester. In my “Faith and Doubt” colloquium, we are starting two weeks on the work of Simone Weil after spending the first half of the semester, in order of appearance, with Anne Lamott, Job, Michel de Montaigne, Soren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, with Ludwig van Beethoven thrown in for musical relief four weeks or so ago. Although they... Read more

Hanging Out with the World’s Most Interesting Man

Last updated on: March 19, 2022 at 3:45 pm By Vance Morgan

His words carry weight that would break a less interesting man’s jaw Every once in a while, Madison Avenue gets it right and an advertising campaign takes on a life of its own. When I was in my late twenties and early thirties, Miller Lite’s “Tastes Great . . . Less Filling” campaign went viral. This simple disagreement about what was more remarkable about Miller Lite—either that it tasted more like real beer than expected or that its reduced calories... Read more

Today Is St. Patrick’s Day. Big Deal.

Last updated on: March 16, 2022 at 10:15 am By Vance Morgan

Three years ago, I had a brief locker room conversation with a campus security guard who frequently tortured himself at the gym around the same time that I did. He noted how much he was dreading Saint Patrick’s Day the next day. “I’ll be here dealing with drunk students for twelve hours,” he predicted. “It’s always the worst day of the year; on a Friday, it’s going to be especially bad” I would not go so far as to say... Read more

The God Who is With Us and Forsakes Us

Last updated on: March 13, 2022 at 12:20 pm By Vance Morgan

This week in my “Faith and Doubt” seminar we are encountering Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the most important “faith and doubt” voices of the twentieth century. Bonhoeffer was a Protestant pastor and theologian during the Nazi era who ultimately found himself in prison awaiting execution because of his involvement in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. In letters to his friend Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer described the many ways in which his understanding of Christian commitment and action was changing. Lurking... Read more

Is a Ukrainian Life Worth Higher Gas Prices?

Last updated on: March 12, 2022 at 3:24 pm By Vance Morgan

A regular reader of my blog asked the other day whether I might want to consider writing about topical things rather than the apparently more remote and esoteric stuff that I tend to write about. Another regular reader wanted to know why I posted an essay (a revision of an older one) called “The Sacrament of Sports Fanaticism” yesterday. “Help me understand the emphasis though when a dictator is blowing up hospitals.” In response, I said that I avoid writing... Read more