Category: Misc.

“Sudden Heaven” describes an experience of glory, glory in the course of normal life. A moment of sudden heaven is not marked by any outward circumstances (it’s not sparked by graduation or a touchdown or falling in love), but is an unexpected, unexplainable epiphany in the middle of the commonplace. You’re just going on with…

The brilliant young Catholic theologian William T. Cavanaugh deflates some gassy notions about education. This has implications for all sorts of teaching, but it rings especially true for undergraduate education. [T]here is no good reason to suppose that authority of itself is a hindrance to academic freedom. Indeed, Christians argue the opposite: the very exercise…

There is an argument about the American founders which is always going on somewhere, and is never productive. First speaker: “This is a Christian nation, with a Christian founding, and the religion reflected in all of our founding documents is Christianity. None of our polity makes sense without the Judeo-Christian origins.” Second speaker: “This is…

There are many ways to celebrate the American brand of political freedom on this Independence Day weekend, and the bookish way is to take a moment to ponder the Declaration of Independence. Its words are so familiar that it can be hard to hear them at all, so try the mental trick of imagining what…

Here is a piece of vintage R. A. Torrey (1856-1928), published in 1917. Everything you could love or hate about Torrey is right here in cold print: the quick wit, the principled stand, the willingness to embrace the social stigma of conservative orthodoxy, the vicious counter-attack on the cultured despisers of religion, the readiness to…

Here is the greatest comic book ever made in the history of the universe. The very existence of this artifact justifies the medium of comic books, validates the career of Bob Hope, and raises the artistry of Leonardo to a new level. This is what the internets are for, this is why the Library of…

I mean literally, what is the thing that got inside of this California poet? Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) is not read much anymore, but I predict his work will make a big comeback in the next decade. I somewhat grudgingly admit that he stands out as one of California’s most accomplished poets, in fact one of…

I am teaching this week (and in July and August) at Wheatstone Academy. I am excited about the opportunity to work with students who are interested in developing a coherent view of the world in an exciting and rigorous setting. What I like about Wheatstone is that they are not like some ministries that are…

Ambrose Bierce (born 1842, date of death an unsolved mystery) had a wit that could eat its way through anything. So universally sardonic was his imagination that there was nothing he couldn’t make fun of, and he proved it by making fun of the dictionary and all the words in it. For his Devil’s Dictionary…

I was just opining that the day of gigantic national parks had passed, that there are no new Yosemites to be set aside, and that today’s John Muirs would be well advised to find a new strategy. I should also have said that there aren’t any more Teddy Roosevelts to do the setting aside. If…

John Muir (1838-1914) deserves the title of “founder of the conservation movement.” He found his voice at a strategic time in American history and was remarkably effective at getting land preserved. He invented a whole range of rhetorical strategies which captured the public imagination and persuaded politicians to take action. When Muir made a case…

Here’s one way to think about what Paul’s doing in Philippians. Having prayed for the church in Philippi to “know which things matter most,” he calls them to re-direct their attention from What Doesn’t Matter Much to What Matters The Most. The argument form is basically “don’t look over there, look over here,” which is…