Essay / Literature

Leave it to a poet…

A selection from W. H. Auden, ‘The Poet & The City’, in The Dyer’s Hand and other essays (London: Faber and Faber, 1963), 86-87 …to speak sense into politics. ‘There are two kinds of political issues, Party issues and Revolutionary issues. In a party issue,

Essay / Culture

Patriotism Firmly Rooted in Mid-Air

One morning last week, as I was driving to the Biola campus to teach a session on Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, I came across two vehicles with two very different sets of bumper stickers. One said “God Bless the World,” and the other, displaying his patriotism

Essay / Misc.

A Theology of Hugging

I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about the call to let others be. This, I take it, is the ethical correlate of the Christian doctrine of creation, in which the perfectly strong God makes room for the world, in which he lets it be.

Essay / Theology

The Coming of the Book

What are the major events in the history of salvation, according to Christianity? If you made a little diagram with stick figures, what would you have to include? The choosing of Abraham, of course. The giving of the law, and the whole Mosaic ministry of

Essay / Podcasts

Victor Davis Hanson: Thucydides

On October 8th, Victor Davis Hanson spoke at Biola University on Thucydides: Understanding the Pellopenessian War and the principles which translate from a study of this ancient Greek historian to the modern political-cultural sphere. This event was sponsored by the Biola Marines Club and the

Essay / Education

Vocabulary Quiz on The Horse and His Boy

A few years ago, I taught the Chronicles of Narnia as part of a college course. I always feel odd teaching a class on books that people read for fun, books with a very high entertainment value. Isn’t that what people outside the academy assume

Essay / Theology

Lyra Fidelium

Samuel J. Stone (1839-1900) was an Anglican clergyman and poet whose claim to fame is that he wrote the hymn, The Church’s One Foundation. But that’s just the hit single off a great album. That hymn is from an interesting collection that Stone wrote in

Essay / Podcasts

Are the Harry Potter Novels Great Books?

Homer, Cicero, Calvin, Austen, Nietzsche, and Rowling? John Granger joins Middlebrow’s John Mark Reynolds and Paul Spears to discuss whether the Potter novels belong in the canon of great Western literature. Listen to it here!

Essay / Avant-Garde

Man. Field. Park.

What you get when you describe the story of Mansfield Park to Freddy Age Eight.

Essay / Misc.

On Remembering Facebook Friends

Just the other night I was doing something that all middle-aged university professors do on a regular basis — maintaining my Facebook! Yes, I have a presence on Facebook and, yes, on occasion I visit the site to see what all of my “friends” are

Essay / Culture

The Election in Classical Context: Victor Davis Hanson at Biola

Here is audio from Victor Davis Hanson’s recent speech at Biola. Following the news day by day can kind of beat up your mind, especially right now with the election, the war, and the financial crisis. These are all big stories that don’t fit daily

Essay / Podcasts

Victor Davis Hanson: The Election in a Classical Context

On October 8, 2008, Victor Davis Hanson spoke at Biola University about the issues facing our modern nation, and the lessons we can learn from the classical tradition. This event was sponsored by the Biola Marines Club, the Torrey Honors Institute, the Christian Apologetics Department,