At the end of each academic year, I tend to reflect back on the past few months for permanent takeaways, experiences and students that will remain with me long after the classes are forgotten and the students have graduated. Being a college professor (and, I suspect, being a teacher of any sort) is a lot like the parable of the sower in Matthew’s gospel. I throw the seed out there indiscriminately on a daily basis, hoping that on occasion it... Read more
Anyone who reads this blog regularly or even occasionally knows that I love movies. Solidly in my top ten, maybe even in the top five, is the 1989 film “Field of Dreams.” About half way through the story, Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) and Terrence Mann (played by James Earl Jones) are in the bowels of my beloved Fenway Park. Ray has brought Terry there in an attempt to involve him in a ludicrous scheme that Mann is trying... Read more
It is Memorial Day weekend, a great time to honor those who have made sacrifices over the years, including the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, to protect our freedoms. It is also a good time 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... Read more
Every religion which does not confirm that God is hidden is not true. Blaise Pascal One of the most fascinating and troubling verses in the Jewish scriptures is from the book of Proverbs:. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, and the glory of kings to search it out.” I, as many people of faith, often wonder why the divine is so unavailable, so frequently silent. I, as many people of faith, have often assumed that this silence... Read more
Iris Murdoch was one of the philosophers whose work was front and center in my upper division course in contemporary philosophy that ended a couple of weeks ago. She is a fascinating figure, an internationally respected philosopher who, at the height of her career, left academia to write novels full time. She ended up writing twenty-six of them, extraordinary investigations of the complexities and messiness of human relationships and commitments. Murdoch claimed to be an atheist, but she also believed... Read more
Today is my college’s Commencement Day. I’ve been to more than thirty college graduation events, including the three when I got to walk across the stage and receive my degree. I have heard many Commencement addresses; the best was a dozen years or so ago from Tim Russert, while there is strong competition among several speakers for the worst. I will probably never have the chance to give a Commencement address myself–if I did, I would say something like this.... Read more
One of my prized possessions, purchased when Jeanne and I on vacation last June in Scotland, is a Harris Tweed wool cap. I bought it in a small shop in Oban, a beautiful port on the west coast of Scotland that is the gateway to the Hebrides islands (where they make Islay scotch, the real reason we went to Scotland in the first place). I wear this cap to work frequently, and am pleased to report that I have managed... Read more
Last week, a Christianity Today article reported that “Half of Americans Say Evangelicals are Discriminated Against.” www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/april/evangelicals-face-discrimination-pew-research-antisemitism.html Sigh. I always appreciate being reminded that evangelical Christians believe that they are the most persecuted majority in history, constituted by people who can’t tell the difference between disagreement and discrimination. What evangelical Christians actually are is a prime example of how faith can turn into defensive tribalism. This is something that one of my favorite Christian apologists, Marilynne Robinson, is acutely attuned to. The recently... Read more
I once learned something interesting about giraffes from one of my colleagues. He was lecturing on Roman art and architecture; when discussing the Coliseum, he mentioned that Roman audiences loved to watch novelty battles—between a woman and a dwarf, or a dog and a porcupine for instance. The voracious Roman appetite for more and more exotic beasts and contests produced a variety of combatants from all corners of the empire, including elephants, apes, the great cats, and rhinoceroses. And giraffes.... Read more
There is no greatness where there is no goodness, simplicity, or truth Leo Tolstoy Although Jeanne and I have lived in our house since 1996, there has never been a time when some portion of the house hasn’t been under revision, ranging in seriousness from furniture arrangement through a new coat of paint to knocking down walls and starting over again. Our largest project, transforming the basement into livable space, was a three-year process that turned out to be about ten times... Read more
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