Year: 2008
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The Secret’s Out: Great Books Education at Biola
Anthony Esolen has posted a blog entry over at Mere Comments regarding his recent visit to the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University: I’ve visited a lot of campuses in the last few years, including Princeton and Yale, and at only one school, the much maligned Patrick Henry College in Virginia, did I encounter quite…
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Christianity and Non-Empirical Knowledge
Last time we looked at the nature of knowledge and we defined it in this way: It is to represent (i.e., experience or think about) reality the way it really is on the basis of adequate grounds, on a solid basis of evidence, experience, intuition, testimony and so forth. We also saw that there there…
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Biola at 100: L.A. Times
2008 is Biola University’s centennial year, and this week saw the actual birthday. LA Times reporter Tiffany Hsu did a fine write-up of the celebration, and explained to Los Angeles what this Bible Institute-turned-into-a-university thing is all about. I’m quoted briefly. Click on through for the story, or see below. Biola evolves but stays the…
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Anthony Esolen at Biola
On Tuesday Feb. 25, Dr. Anthony Esolen spoke to the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University. Dr. Esolen, professor of English at Providence College, is best known for his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Esolen’s edition prints the original medieval Italian verse on the left-hand pages, with his vigorous English translation on facing right-hand pages,…
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What is Knowledge?
Do we the disciples of Jesus possess through Scripture and other means a reliable source of knowledge of reality or do we not? We have seen that this is an important question. The possession of knowledge—especially religious and moral knowledge—is essential for a life of flourishing. To answer this question we must, first, answer another…
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*Give Your Life to Mani*
Recent Converts! Are You Confused? Does your inquiring mind raise questions the authoritarian church just can’t answer? . *** ASK MANI! *** . He Can Explain True Christianity To You! **************************************** **************************************** **************************************** **************************************** **************************************** **************************************** ALL THAT IS … is light and darkness. But in the beginning, the King of Darkness smelled something desirable…
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The Book of Biola: Rooted for One Hundred Years
Here is what I said (as best I can recall) at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, Feb 22 for the grand opening of Biola’s heritage room. The event was also the official release of the 100th anniversary commemorative book Rooted for One Hundred Years. I got to speak just after Dietrich Buss, history professor emeritus.…
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Happy Birthday, George Washington
Popular internet artist Freddy Age 7, in a rare signed artwork, pays homage to the first president of the United States (see Freddy’s extensive online art gallery here). Patriotic images, especially ones inspired by national holidays, are a staple of this young artist’s ouevre. This image features a George Washington figure recognizable by his white…
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Marsden at Biola
Renowned scholar of Fundamental Evangelicalism and the secularization of American universities, George Marsden, visited Biola this week as a guest of the Associated Students. On Wednesday a small number of faculty, including myself, had the opportunity to speak with him. When I asked him what he thought would keep Biola University from following the course…
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How To Make Cartoons
Cartooning is fun, and anybody who’d like to try their hand at it should probably go buy Scott McCloud’s excellent book on it. But if you don’t want to spend the money on McCloud’s far-reaching description of comics technique, here’s a fun free intro: Barnacle Press has a “Pocket Cartoon Course” from the 1940s available…
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Sinning Like Sheep
In Handel’s Messiah, the composer teaches theology through music. It may seem unlikely that Handel himself could be doing any teaching in this composition, since the text of Messiah is entirely composed of Bible verses, and even the choice and arrangement of them was the work of somebody else –the librettist Charles Jennens. How could…
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The Internet For Dummie… Academics
The internet will change everything. As though trying to “write” your dissertation on a computer was not difficult enough, now many computers are cutting the edge of technology with something called “the internet.” Do not distress, Fred Sanders, Paul Spears, and John Mark Reynolds are here to help you make sense of the vast, complicated,…