This is the Way the Semester Ends

Last updated on: May 11, 2020 at 1:14 pm By Vance Morgan

During the early weeks of the semester in our “Apocalypse” seminar, my teaching colleague from the English department opened a lecture with a PowerPoint slide containing the famous final lines from T. S. Eliot’s 1925 poem “The Hollow Men,” imagining an unspectacular fizzling out of things rather than something more dramatic. With apologies to Eliot, I imagined that if he had been teaching this semester, he might have ended his poem with a one-word change. This is the way the semester... Read more

Sometimes, Getting Stoned is a Bad Thing

Last updated on: May 10, 2020 at 6:44 am By Vance Morgan

The New Testament reading in today’s lectionary line-up is the stoning of Stephen from the Book of Acts. This reminds me of a brief conversation I had with a Benedictine monk a decade ago. “Happy Stoning Day!” Brother John said as he greeted me after noon prayer the day after Christmas. December 26 is the Feast of St. Stephen, officially designated as the first Christian martyr. Brother John, a guitar-picking, out-of-the-box product of the sixties, is not your typical Benedictine. “I’ve... Read more

How to Speak About Gun Violence

Last updated on: December 5, 2022 at 9:30 am By Vance Morgan

The final unit in my General Ethics class that ended last week was Gun Violence. We spent the last five 75-minute classes on Zoom reading and discussing contemporary essays from philosophers on the Second Amendment, gun violence, and why all attempts to curb gun violence and mass shootings to date have essentially failed. My students, mostly 20-21-year-old juniors and seniors, were born into and have lived in a world in which gun violence and mass shootings are tragically “normal” occurrences.... Read more

Coronavirus Seclusion and “Amazing Grace”

Last updated on: May 6, 2020 at 3:15 pm By Vance Morgan

In the interdisciplinary program I teach in and used to direct, the first semester faculty have to make many tough choices. Iliad or Odyssey? What texts from the Hebrew Scriptures? The New Testament? What to use from Plato and Aristotle–or, God forbid, Plato or Aristotle? And no less challenging—which of the triumvirate of great Greek tragedians? Usually it is a toss-up between the profundity of Sophocles and the brilliance of Euripides, but for one recent fall semester, my teammate and I opted for the first... Read more

Emerging from the Tomb

Last updated on: May 4, 2020 at 7:14 am By Vance Morgan

My newest online publication at “Bearings Online,” link below, reflects on the appropriateness of coronavirus seclustion and separation during the Easter season. When the time comes, what will our emergence from the tomb be like? What does resurrection in real time look like? Enjoy! Emerging from the Tomb Read more

Sheep in the Streets: A Reflection for Good Shepherd Sunday

Last updated on: May 2, 2020 at 1:10 pm By Vance Morgan

As horrific and tragic as most Covid-19 stories are, every once in a while these days I come across a story that both makes me smile and gives me hope. These stories have a common theme–while the fragility of human lives and interests are on daily display world-wide, it appears that non-human nature is benefitting from, even kind of enjoying, the brave new world that the coronavirus has thrust upon us. For instance, a new species of clientele is showing... Read more

We are Nothing but Wind

Last updated on: April 29, 2020 at 1:33 pm By Vance Morgan

I am not a complainer by nature. My wife, my family, and my friends would attest to this (I think). I’m an optimist at heart, a glass-half-full sort of guy. I’m like the kid from the joke who explains why he is digging through a pile of horseshit by saying that “there must be a pony in here somewhere.” I will admit that my native optimism has been challenged more seriously than usual over the past several weeks—but most of... Read more

Why Certainty and Faith Don’t Belong Together

Last updated on: April 27, 2020 at 10:34 am By Vance Morgan

Human beings never behave so badly as when they believe they are protecting God. Barbara Brown Taylor Every time someone claims that we live in a country founded on “Christian principles,” I think of Benjamin Franklin. His Autobiography is often a text at the appropriate time in the interdisciplinary program I teach in—it’s short, pithy, no nonsense and quintessentially American. Exactly what I would expect from Ben. He doesn’t say a lot about organized religion other than to express his distaste for and... Read more

Facing Coronavirus “What Ifs?”

Last updated on: April 26, 2020 at 7:26 am By Vance Morgan

The final week of the strangest academic semester of my life begins tomorrow. As I told a close friend and fellow academic on the phone last night, a friend who had the very good sense to be on sabbatical working on a book project during this challenging semester, I have told people for years of my happiness that I am old enough to never have to deal with teaching distance learning courses on line. And yet over the past several... Read more

Jesus, Cleopas, and George Have a Conversation About Hope

Last updated on: April 23, 2020 at 11:58 am By Vance Morgan

“Now abide faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.” These words from the apostle Paul are heard at many, perhaps most, weddings. Everyone wants to believe that love is the greatest, especially on their wedding day. Faith seems to be part of my DNA—challenging it, trying to get rid of it, redefining it, being confused by it, and generally struggling with the “f-word” (as I call it in the classroom) has shaped me for as long... Read more