I grew up in New England and live in New York City, and more than any other sport, we Northeasterners love baseball. And the season has just begun. So I was delighted to see a review essay by Michael Stevens in Books & Culture on two new books on baseball: Several new biographies and autobiographies have recently been released, so that you can trace the highly successful trajectory of Tony LaRussa’s managing career (but who was designing those incongruous early-’80s White Sox... Read more
There’s a great interview with Glynn Young at The High Calling’s new Young Professionals channel, addressing issues that Young has encountered throughout his career. I found this bit especially interesting: Because this was the 1970s, and women were just beginning to break into the business professions, they were still treated as second-class citizens. As a young Christian who didn’t know any better, to me they were my colleagues. I didn’t think of them as ‘lesser’ than I was. It’s interesting, but... Read more
It’s Monday. Are you getting crushed by your email? Jenna Wortham offered some tips for digging out and staying out at the NY Times, including features and services that can help you. It’s worth a quick read, if only to trigger some possibilities, and for this reminder: WHEN IN DOUBT, GET OUT One kindly reader wrote to tell me that my problems with e-mail could easily be solved by simply getting up from my sad, soulless, windowless cubicle and actually talking to... Read more
In the next couple of months, thousands of Christians will be graduating from college. Some will go on to grad school. But the majority of grads will commence a life of work. Or, at least they’ll start looking for a job, not to mention a career The High Calling is offering several valuable resources for graduating college seniors who are about to enter the workforce. These include: • A sample commissioning service for Christians in the workplace. • Praise song... Read more
The recent death of comedian Jonathan Winters reminded me of a very curious and humorous experience from days gone by. It was the time Jonathan Winters made my breakfast . . . well, almost. It happened about 25 years ago, when I was working as an associate pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. Since many church members lived in the San Fernando Valley, I would often meet them at Paty’s Restaurant in Toluca Lake, a neighborhood in the... Read more
My friend Christy Tennant Krispin is one of the most intentional people I know — in the sense that she does many things in her life with a great deal of intentionality and thoughtfulness. One of those things is collecting art. She recently held a show in Seattle, where she now lives with her husband, of the art they’ve collected over the years. But it wasn’t just an art show, as Christianity Today’s “This is Our City” reported: Christy, a Dubsea... Read more
Hello, everyone! I’m delighted to be contributing here, and grateful to Mark for asking me to come on board (you can read more in his introductory post earlier this week). I don’t plan to link to things I write all that much, but I’ve got a piece over at The High Calling today, about my foray into long-distance running and what I’ve learned from the experience. The post is timely, because the topic is on my mind again: I’ve got another... Read more
In light of the tragic death of Matthew Warren, son of Rick and Kay Warren, Christians are talking about depression as never before. This is a crucial conversation, one for which we need ample wisdom. Such wisdom is available from Christianity Today, whose recent cover story focuses on “The Depression Epidemic.” The writer of this fine article couldn’t be better suited for this task. Dr. Dan G. Blazer is J. P. Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke... Read more
I just read a fascinating article about Christian faith at Harvard, and I commend it to you. Here’s a teaser: There are countless tales of students whose faith slips away during their time at college. The ones who ignore questions from mom about going to church on Sundays, or take a philosophy class that destabilizes their belief in God. The ones who no longer see the appeal of theism, or leave their copy of the Bible unopened on the bookshelf.... Read more
Mark D. Roberts
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Reading More Carefully
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find that there’s way too much to read—on the internet, on my desk, on my coffeetable, in my mailbox, and everywhere else. So I read, with interest, this post about a new system for reading: All the information we have available only increases our stress levels and diminishes available time. We consume much more than we create, we read much more than we think, and it should be the other way around. We... Read more