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April 2026

April 30, 2026

Advice that Saint Francis Never Gave

There is a saying attributed to Saint Francis that I have heard frequently over more...

April 01, 2026

Making the Truth Laugh: An April Fools Day Reflection

I know that today is Wednesday in Holy Week, but it is also April Fools...

January 2026

January 18, 2026

Outgrowing the Need to Believe

A number of years ago, at the end of a presentation to fellow resident scholars...

December 2025

December 28, 2025

The Chocolate Bible

Today's gospel reading is the the beautifully poetic first verses of John's gospel, staring with...

December 23, 2025

Love Comes Down

Since Christmas falls on Thursday this year, I'm sending this week's middle-of-the-week post a couple...

October 2025

October 19, 2025

“Hello, God!”

You can either think of the creeds of the great traditions . . . as...

September 2025

September 28, 2025

Do Moral Absolutes Exist?

Do moral absolutes exist? Is human engagement with moral principles more like a treasure hunt,...

June 2025

June 25, 2025

The Most Important and Influential Literary Character

Some time ago I read the first few pages of Greg Epstein’s Good without God....

May 2025

May 15, 2025

The President and the Cult of Ignorance

It was about five years ago, in the height of the pandemic during the closing...

May 13, 2025

Why Faith Needs Doubt: A Lesson from Exams and a Pope

Oral Exams and Conclaves Last week was final exam week--I administered 32 written exams and...

September 2024

September 24, 2024

How to Make God Interesting

It is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for a [non-Christian] to hear a Christian, supposedly...

September 15, 2024

Comfort is vastly overrated

In the interdisciplinary, team-taught course I am participating in this semester, we spent our second...

September 08, 2024

What Does a Mature Faith Look Like?

I detect that a rebellion against all things “religious” is growing on me. Often it...

August 2024

August 02, 2024

The Dangers of Unexamined Faith

He lived over two millennia ago, and as far as we know he never wrote...

July 2024

July 21, 2024

Okay, fine. I’m a heretic.

I've spent significant time over the past fourteen or fifteen months immersed in the Bible....

July 19, 2024

On its way to the publisher!

On Monday I will be sending the final manuscript of A Year of Faith and Philosophy:...

April 2024

April 28, 2024

Your Comfort Zone Is Not a Sacred Space

In an interview with CNN a few Easters ago, Barbara Brown Taylor said this about...

April 23, 2024

Of Betta Fish and Forgiveness

One day several years ago, Jeanne said “I want a fish.” This was a rather...

March 2024

March 14, 2024

Eating Your Words. Literally.

Truth isn’t sympathetic to our need for certainty or stability. Jared Enns, “The Bible for...

February 2024

February 29, 2024

Being a Person of Faith in Challenging Times

This has been a challenging week in class, not because of my students but because...

January 2024

January 09, 2024

This I Believe–and that’s not a good thing

A number of years ago, at the end of a presentation to fellow resident scholars...

December 2023

December 12, 2023

God Is On The Journey Too

Two of the contemporary authors whose insights on faith and spirituality challenge me the most...

December 08, 2023

No Perception is Immaculate

I have taught philosophy in Catholic higher education for more that thirty years as a...

October 2023

October 12, 2023

Jesus and Schrödinger’s Cat

This summer's blockbuster movie "Oppenheimer" has caused me to return to matters that used to...

October 10, 2023

In Bed with Krista and Kate

It was just beginning to turn dimly light when I began to wake up. I...

September 2023

September 10, 2023

Is Tolerance the Most Important Virtue?

What happens when a perfectly good virtue gets turned into not only the most important virtue,...

August 2023

August 24, 2023

The Problem with Wisdom, Part Two

Last week I posted an essay called “The Problem with Wisdom, Part One,” inspired by...

July 2023

July 27, 2023

Can I Be Both a Philosopher and a Christian?

I am not a regular reader of Christianity Today, but the title of Jon Ward’s...

July 08, 2023

What We Can Learn about Trust from a Corgi

It's hard to believe that our corgi Bovina, the love and center of Jeanne's and...

June 2023

June 27, 2023

Why Don’t You Just Admit that You’re a Heretic?

One of my favorite passages from the Gospels is when Jesus is asked “Which is...

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