Patheos

BuddhistCatholicContemplativeEvangelicalGeneral ChristianHinduJewishLatter-day SaintMuslimNew VisionsProgressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Patheos

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos Patheos on Facebook Patheos on YouTube

freelancechristianity

Development of Western Civilization

Select a Category abortion Advent AI Angels Artificial intelligence atheism attention baptism Baptists beauty belief Benedictines Bible bicycling Big Bird books Bovina Camaldoli hermitage Canada Catholicism cats certainty change Christianity Christmas Collegeville Covid-19 creativity Development of Western Civilization dogs doubt Easter Enneagram Epiphany Episcopal ethics Eucharist evil extroverts Facebook faith family fear flowers forgiveness freedom friends God goodness grace happiness heaven hell history Holy Spirit Holy Week hope human nature humility humor idolatry incarnation introverts irreverence Islam Jeanne Jesus Joe Biden joy Judaism justice Kamala Harris knowledge Lent listen literature liturgy love Marsue Memorial Day miracles movies music mystery mythology NPR Old Testament optimism paradox peace Penguins philosophy piano podcast politics power prayer Protestantism Providence College Religion Rhode Island sabbatical sacrament science seeing silence Simone Weil Socrates soul sports St. John's College stories suffering tattoo teaching technology television theology thinking time tolerance transcendence travel trees trust truth Uncategorized Vermont wisdom wonder writing

Select a Month May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012

May 2019

May 19, 2019

To the Graduates . . .

Today is my college's Commencement Day. I've been to more than thirty college graduation events,...

March 2019

March 21, 2019

The GOATs of the Western Tradition

The beautiful Ruane Center for the Humanities on our campus opened in the Fall of 2013,...

August 2018

August 28, 2018

Happy New Year! The First Day of Classes

Today is the first full class day of the semester at my college. Everyone has...

July 2018

July 03, 2018

All Things Shall Be Well?

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall...

June 2018

June 21, 2018

This is What You are Afraid of

Frederick Buechner says that vocation is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s...

May 2018

May 22, 2018

Why the Liberal Arts Matter

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough was the speaker at Providence College's Commencement exercises...

May 17, 2018

Is Israel in the West? and other questions from the classroom

Swirling around the dedication of the new United States embassy in Jerusalem this week have...

April 2018

April 24, 2018

The A$$hole Saint

I come from a hardcore Protestant world, a world in which we did not do...

April 10, 2018

Moral Apocalypse

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. Shakespeare, King Lear This week,...

April 08, 2018

There Was Not a Needy Person Among Them . . .

A couple of days ago, the following from Franklin Graham came across my Twitter feed:...

March 2018

March 18, 2018

There Is A God, But I Do Not Believe In HIm

God would have us know that we must live as people who manage our lives...

March 17, 2018

Celebrating Saint Bridget’s Day

A little over a year ago, as I dressed after working out, I had a...

February 2018

February 06, 2018

Two Plus Two Makes Four

In J. M. Coetzee’s strange and fascinating novel The Childhood of Jesus, the precocious child...

February 01, 2018

Deflategate and the Nazis

Exactly three years ago, on the morning of Super Bowl 49, I wrote a blog...

December 2017

December 29, 2017

The Hungry Person’s Bread–Best of “Bearings Online” #5

I occasionally write articles for Bearings Online, the online publication of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical...

December 12, 2017

It’s About Time

Time has been on my mind recently. A couple of months ago in my freshman...

November 2017

November 05, 2017

Silence and Submission

Over the past few weeks, Americans have been reminded once again of the misogyny and...

October 2017

October 19, 2017

I Am Not Special, and Neither Are You

The Disrupter-in-Chief threw a verbal grenade into a Rose Garden event with Mitch McConnell by...

October 12, 2017

God Doesn’t Need Our Protection

Human beings never behave so badly as when they believe they are protecting God. Barbara Brown...

October 10, 2017

Knowing the Unknowable

Every fall I spend a week with over one hundred freshman exploring the familiar but...

September 2017

September 15, 2017

What I Want, When I Want It

I was born into a world in which preference-expression was a highly evolved art form...

August 2017

August 29, 2017

They’re Baaack . . . .

We are in the business of believing in, and promoting, things that don’t yet exist....

August 24, 2017

The Point of a Professor

When I was a young professor, the chair of my department frequently would say in...

August 13, 2017

It Isn’t Working

April may be the cruelest month, if T. S. Eliot is correct, but for teachers,...

August 06, 2017

Entertaining Angels

Angels show up in all shapes and sizes, in all sorts of situations and scenarios....

July 2017

July 14, 2017

The Western Tradition in Eighteen Windows

Your assignment is to name the eighteen most important figures in the Western liberal arts...

July 09, 2017

The Burden of LIght

In today's gospel, Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light....

June 2017

June 23, 2017

Spiritual Plagiarism

God often operates according to entirely different rules than those to which we are accustomed....

June 10, 2017

I Am Because You Are

It became clear at the Comey hearing and after that Donald Trump's primary concern is...

May 2017

May 29, 2017

Is Democracy Overrated?

In an early season of "House of Cards," Frank Underwood observes that "democracy is so...

Related posts from Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

The Lonely Pawn: On Faith, Doubt, and Meaning

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Agency

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Love: When a Chatbot Becomes a...

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Transcendence

Freelance Christianity

Patheos on Facebook Patheos on YouTube

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Copyright 2008-2026, Patheos. All rights reserved.

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos Patheos on Facebook Patheos on YouTube