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May 2026

May 20, 2026

AI and Agency

At the beginning of the month, I set the stage for my next several posts...

January 2026

January 29, 2026

The Nihilist Penguin

During finals week in December, a student from my Early Modern Philosophy course showed up...

June 2025

June 06, 2025

Planted By the Streams of Water

Pastor Dan, the interim pastoral caretaker of  the Lutheran church that Jeanne attends (and I...

January 2025

January 24, 2025

The Year of the Lord’s Favor

This coming Sunday is Epiphany 3; the appointed readings include two of my favorite passages...

September 2024

September 03, 2024

In all they do, they prosper

There are two kinds of living things. They are distinguished by the strategies they have...

April 2024

April 15, 2024

Jesus Wants You to Pay Your Taxes and to Like It

Today is tax day. As the familiar saying goes, just like death taxes are inevitable....

February 2024

February 22, 2024

Did Jesus Misread Human Nature?

The Gospel reading for last Sunday, the First Sunday of Lent, is the account of...

October 2023

October 15, 2023

Why Do We Think that Everything Happens for a Reason?

The last text of the Spring 2021 semester--the last Covid-19 affected semester on my campus--in...

September 2023

September 19, 2023

Abortion and Faith Discussions: Part Two

Except for those who deliberately and religiously stay disconnected from current events and those who...

August 2023

August 05, 2023

When What I Want to Believe Isn’t True: Reflections on the latest indictment of Donald Trump

What do you do when virtually all of the evidence relevant to an important matter...

July 2023

July 23, 2023

You Say You Want a Revolution?

There is a saying, particularly popular among conservatives, that “A conservative is a liberal who...

July 03, 2023

Sitting in Safety Without Fear–an Independence Day Reflection

Every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall...

May 2023

May 16, 2023

What Freedom Amounts To

Each of us can point to a time (or several times) in our past when...

May 09, 2023

Determined to Believe that We are Not Determined

In a recent edition of The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik reviews two or three books...

April 2023

April 17, 2023

Drops Upon the Heart

In the interdisciplinary program I teach in and used to direct, the first semester faculty...

April 13, 2023

Jesus, Death, and Taxes

Thanks to the calendar, we get three extra days to file our taxes this year...

January 2023

January 17, 2023

The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me . . .

Spring semester classes start today. One of my courses is a team-taught colloquium with a...

June 2022

June 21, 2022

So You Want to be Free? Face your Demons

Iris Murdoch is one of my favorite philosophers and novelists, a writer whose work is...

May 2022

May 21, 2022

Some Advice for the Graduating Seniors: Don’t Forget About the Room at the Back of your Shop

Today is Commencement Day for the Class of 2022 at my college. Commencement is always...

March 2022

March 03, 2022

What if Jesus Turned the Stones into Bread?

The Gospel reading in this coming Sunday’s lectionary for the first Sunday of Lent is...

March 01, 2022

An Assignment for Lent: Learn the Difference Between Solitude and Being Alone

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to yourself. Michel...

January 2022

January 23, 2022

The Words of Our Mouths and the Meditation of Our Hearts

This past week I began a new course with a colleague from the Political Science...

January 20, 2022

The (White) Privilege of “Blending In”

Roughly a month after the 1/6 insurrection last year, at a House of Representatives event...

January 12, 2022

Throwing Away the Image of God

At the beginning of a recent episode of “Consider This,” NPR’s daily afternoon news podcast,...

July 2021

July 03, 2021

Nationalism is Unpatriotic: An Independence Day Reflection

I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of Independence Day. I fully...

June 2021

June 07, 2021

Everything Does Not Happen for a Reason

The last text of the semester in my “Apocalypse” colloquium was Emily St. John Mandel’s...

June 04, 2021

God is Doing the Most that God Can Do

Frank Tupper, an important Baptist theologian who argued that God is in control of very...

April 2021

April 15, 2021

Death and Taxes

In a normal year, today would be everyone's least favorite day of the year--Tax Day....

March 2021

March 18, 2021

Our Great and Glorious Masterpiece

Over the years, a typical scenario has unfolded when I meet someone for the first...

February 2021

February 09, 2021

“So We Could Blend In”: A U.S. Congressman Learns About White Privilege

Today is the first day of the impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump...

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