A friend and I had a conversation about a situation of systemic and personal abuse she was suffering, which turned into correspondence between us. With permission, I have polished up my exchange with Lori (a pseudonym), as a reflection on what it means for a
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Love the Perpetrator as the Survivor? Correspondence with a Friend about Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself
A friend and I had a conversation about a situation of systemic and personal abuse she was suffering, which turned into correspondence between us. With permission, I have polished up my exchange with Lori (a pseudonym), as a reflection on what it means for a victim to properly love a…
Culture Essays
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The Hunting Grounds
A recent documentary, The Hunting Ground, explores the tragedy of sexual assault on university and college campuses across the nation. Directed by Oscar-nominated Kirby Dick, maker of The Invisible War, which discusses the epidemic of rape within the military, The Hunting Ground serves as Dick’s
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Black Lives Matter at Biola, 1957
I recently learned that the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, through its monthly magazine The King’s Business, took a stand against racial segregation in 1957. This 1957 broadcasting of Biola’s institutional position was neither so early as to be cutting-edge, nor so late as to be
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Why Read? By Eva Brann
This speech was originally given on March 3, 2016, by Professor Eva Brann of St. John’s College (Annapolis), as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at the Torrey Honors Institute. The following is an excerpt. A link to her full speech is available on Open
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Online Education: Relation-less Education
Online classes and online universities are all the rage. They boast an impressive set of virtues and opportunities. Among them: Take classes in your pajamas (or less)! Why relocate? Learn at your own pace. Keep your day job. Pay less. A lot less (but read
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The Un-Resume: An Exercise in Professional Humility
To some of our students, we faculty probably present a daunting picture of excellence. After all, we are professors at one of the most distinguished private Christian universities—we excel in our fields, publish scholarly works about topics they may have never even heard of, are
Essay / Art
On Traveling
Traveling has not always been a big deal but for the past two centuries it has become fashionable to travel. In the early Middle Ages it was difficult to get a lot of places. The old Roman road system had collapsed under the weight of
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Christmas Playlist 2015: Cambridge
It’s that time of year again: the Sanders family Christmas mixtape, which we’ve been making annually since they were actually mixtapes (’95?), is newly assembled and on heavy rotation. Last Christmas I put together a collection of grainy, monophonic Christmas music. This year, to save
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Roger Lundin (1949-2015)
I remember him larger than life. He was a big man—tall, solidly built, with a voice that boomed and the occasional flair for the dramatic. To this day, nearly twenty years later, the lasting image I have of Roger Lundin finds him crawling across the
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Edwards, Fiddling on the Roof: The Role of Religious Affections in the Christian Life
In “The Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye asks his wife: “do you love me?” A beautiful song follows, as his wife relives the last 25 years of their marriage, thinking through the chores, the children, the sacrifices… but through all this Tevye’s refrain echoes: “yes…
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Father, Son and Michael Jordan? Gatorade’s Image of the Trinity
You have likely heard several bad images of the Trinity. Ice, water and steam are one in that they are all water, but three states. There are three leaves to a clover, but one clover…. There are any number of such images, each offering an
Essay / Art
No Mules Were Skinned: The History of the Muleskinner Blues
Let’s say you get obsessed with a song. And let’s say it’s an old song, one that’s been around a long time and has been performed so many ways that it’s no longer possible to name any particular version of it as definitive. If you’re