James, the brother of Jesus, was serious about his prayer. He used to go to the temple and kneel in prayer so often and for so long that his knees were reputed to be as calloused and tough as a camel’s. He was bishop of Jerusalem then and was martyred several years before the temple was ultimately destroyed, but as long as he had life he could be found, as one ancient writer put it, “bending the knee in adoration... Read more
When you’re a kid you rarely glimpse just how challenging, grief-stricken, and dangerous the world really is. Other people—God bless them—are busy taking care of it for you. But as you grow up, you have to shoulder more of those responsibilities yourself, few of which come with rulebooks or how-to’s. It’s not for the faint of heart. You get a call with news that punches your gut. You face an ethical quandary in which the “solutions” just look like myriad... Read more
There is a passage in C. S. Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters, that helps explain the physical side of being spiritual. In his fourth letter, senior demon Screwtape holds forth on the subject of befuddling a new Christian in his prayers. He starts by mentioning a line from the romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge about how he prayed without “moving lips and bended knees.” Coleridge thought he nailed it well enough by merely feeling prayerful, a view that Screwtape endorses... Read more
A publisher and a rabbi walk into a kosher restaurant. . . . That’s not the setup to a joke. A few years ago I had lunch with Rabbi Daniel Lapin at the wonderful Grins Vegetarian Café in Nashville (then and maybe now the only kosher joint around). We talked about several different things, among them our families. “You know why God gives us children, don’t you?” he asked me. “Why?” “So that we’ll stop being children.” I’ve thought about... Read more
Life, to quote that neglected philosopher Tonio K., is “a fiery ordeal.” Sometimes it’s easy. Most of the time, it’s not. But when life’s tough, it’s often tougher still to do the one thing we’re urged in Scripture over and again: To give thanks. We’re all well aware of the verses. Ephesians 5: “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father. . . . ” 1 Thessalonians 5: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.... Read more
Ideas don’t exist in a vacuum. I was reminded of this while flipping through George Orwell’s collected essays and saw a jab he took at C.S. Lewis in a 1944 issue of the leftist Tribune. His beef was with Lewis’ collected radio talks, Beyond Personality, what eventually became the final portion of Mere Christianity. Orwell characterized Lewis as enjoying some “vogue at this moment,” which permitted him to offer “chummy little wireless talks.” But Orwell saw these chummy talks and... Read more
I’ve been thinking for a while about how to encourage belief in my two children, particularly faith in God, trust in his mercy, and hope in his provision. But all around me I see people losing belief, not only in these things particularly, but in God generally. Why? I don’t think it’s the new crop of media-savvy atheists and all their “persuasive” arguments. I know enough about belief and persuasion to know that most of the time people do not... Read more
It’s no small mercy that one of the most elevated human undertakings can occur during one of the most humbling. Yes, I’m talking about reading on the john. Stop blushing. You know you do it. Everyone does. I only wonder if we’re maximizing the experience. (more…) Read more
In all the discussions about digital publishing, enhanced ebooks, and the future of publishing, let’s not forget that we publish books. We don’t design games, produce movies, or animate features. We publish books. By “books” I do not mean a bunch of printed pages between covers, what is technically known as a codex. That format has been in wide use for the last nineteen hundred years or so. Before that the format of choice was the scroll. Today we have... Read more
Novelist John Updike once called the King James Bible “our language’s lone masterpiece produced by committee.” He said that in a New Yorker review of Robert Alter’s translation of the Pentateuch—The Five Books of Moses. Well, Alter now has a new book about the King James Bible and its influence on the style of six American novelists: Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Marilynne Robinson, and Cormac McCarthy. It’s called Pen of Iron, a title taken from Jeremiah... Read more
Joel J. Miller
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