Essay / Culture

Because of Fairies

Recently, I spent twelve hours discussing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with sophomores in the Torrey Honors Institute. (What a job!) I love this play more and more. It’s easy to miss its richness–it’s such a romp! Here’s the thing that struck me in reading

Essay / Literature

Hermeneutics with Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson gives some excellent advice in his Preface to Shakespeare (1765) that applies to reading in general, and especially well to Bible reading. Johnson advises readers to plow straight through a Shakespeare play, keeping up a good pace even when passages aren’t clear. To

Essay / Literature

Wordsworth in the West

William Wordsworth perfected a certain type of nature poetry, a particularly spiritual sort of nature lyric. He celebrated the movements of the infinite Spirit making itself known to humanity through the forms of nature as contemplated by poet-prophets who were the universe’s appointed spokesmen. Nature

Essay / Podcasts

The Common Room Ep. 8: Virgil’s Aeneid and the Meaning of Fate

Torrey director Dr. Paul Spears discusses “Virgil’s Aeneid and the Meaning of Fate” with Dr. Adam Johnson.  Moderated by Dr. Fred Sanders. For other episodes of The Common Room, click here.  The Common Room is available on iTunes in both video and audio formats.

Essay / Literature

Recommended: Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members

As the academic year rolls back around, I usually end up reading a late-summer silly novel. Nothing eases the pain of being a grown-up with a job quite like a dose of Wodehouse –though Alexander McCall Smith and Jack Handey also work pretty well. I

Essay / Podcasts

The Common Room, Ep. 6: Why Does Hamlet Delay?

In one of this summer’s Common Room sessions, Shakespearean expert Dr. Melissa Schubert discusses the question of Hamlet’s hesitation with theologian Dr. Joe Henderson.  Moderated by Dr. Matt Jenson. For other episodes of The Common Room, click here.  The Common Room is available on iTunes in both video and audio formats.

Essay / Theology

Erasmus Milks Ephesians

Erasmus of Rotterdam taught the Renaissance world how to take a thought and expand it, expound it, extrapolate it into a fountain of new expressions and novel turns of phrase. His “abundant style” bore much fruit for the students who learned it from him. But the

Essay / Podcasts

The Common Room, Ep. 5: The Faerie Queene

Dr. Matt Jenson moderates a discussion with Dr. Melissa Schubert and Dr. Joe Henderson on Edmund Spenser’s epic poem, The Faerie Queene. For other episodes of The Common Room, click here.  The Common Room is available on iTunes in both video and audio formats.

Essay / Art

Tirso de Molina's Tragic Rake

Everyone has his or her notion of what constitutes a relaxing evening. For me, among other things, it is an occasional trip to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles to watch and experience an operatic performance. This weekend, neither time nor finances permitted such

Essay / Literature

Don Quixote’s Last Laugh

One of the most frustrating things about being a professor in a Great Books program is that there are so many books that can, and indeed should, be in any possible curriculum, but given the constraints related to time and space that we have to

Essay / Literature

War is Swell: Crispin’s Day

Okay, war is not really swell. But today (October 25) is the anniversary of two battles that live on in our memory because of the martial virtues conspicuously displayed in them. These battles conjured poetry from two of the greatest poets in the history of