Featured Essay / Blog
A concerned student recently asked me to use my authority over a friend of theirs (also a student and mentee of mine) to help get them on the right track, for this friend was involved in quite destructive behavior. As we were talking, I was growing increasingly uncomfortable, but when…
Essay / Education
Bishop Eustathius of Thessalonica (1115-1195) wrote a long, Greek commentary on the Iliad, which he introduced with this commendation of Homer. He thinks everybody should read Homer, but his strategy seems to be making the poet seem deep, dark, and dangerous: Homer is like Sirens.
Essay / Education
A student gave me a beautiful reminder of the heart of a liberal arts education last semester. And it wasn’t because she got good grades. In fact, her grades were pretty poor. Having done the vast majority of the work for the semester, she found
Essay / Culture
I teach classics for a living. As a result, my kids overhear conversations and snippets of conversations about Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and a host of others. But that’s not all they hear, for as someone devoted to the classics, I share this love with them
Essay / Culture
April 30, 2015 7:30 pm Biola University Buy tickets or register for the livestream. How can societies preserve freedom for all people when we are beset by serious and substantial disagreements over what shape freedom should take? What kinds of virtues do we need as
Essay / Education
In a recent book (following C.S. Lewis, we might call it the “Green Book”), the acknowledgments read as follows: “Ignoring the guidance of my fundamentalist Christian community by making Karl Barth the focus of my doctoral studies was one of the most pivotal decisions of
Essay / Education
The Davenant Trust, the organization that sponsors creative resourcement projects “to revitalize contemporary Reformed and evangelical discourse,” has launched a major new undertaking: the Davenant Latin Institute. Readers of the Scriptorium may remember Davenant for its sponsorship of The Future of Protestantism event at Biola.
Essay / Culture
The Torrey Honors Institute recently partnered with Biola’s Apologetics department to host a discussion on God, science and the big questions between J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, and John Lennox, moderated by Hugh Hewitt. Enjoy this discussion. The minds are keen, the wits sharp, and
Essay / Education
This year for our Christmas card, the faculty and staff of the Torrey Honors Institute chose a winter theme. This sent us all to our closets and garages to find coats, scarves, and hats that don’t get much use here in Southern California. One of
Essay / Education
I love to argue with Simone Weil (1909-1943)’s essay “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God.” Then again, I love to argue with Simone Weil. Her writings always have something in them that catches me and
Essay / Education
I had heard that Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) wrote a book showing hundreds of ways to say “thanks for your letter,” so I went and looked it up, just to see what one of the Renaissance’s prime movers was thinking when he did that. The
Essay / Education
I had the pleasure of speaking last week at Biola University’s Baccalaureate service. Graduating seniors and their friends and families gathered for a worship service, and I offered them them the following words for reflection: As we gather tonight, I hope to help you reflect
Essay / Culture
On Friday, we watched as the Class of 2014 in the Torrey Honors Institute graduated. Most of the students I have worked closely with in the last four years graduated, and I got the chance to speak to them. How do you give a graduation