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April 2017

April 07, 2017

Your Heart’s Desire

I received the welcome news this past week that my forthcoming book, which has been...

March 2017

March 27, 2017

I Don’t Know

Let me tell you here first, “trust in God” has never floated my boat as...

March 03, 2017

Getting Ready for the Apocalypse

A colleague and friend from the English department contacted me a few months ago and...

January 2017

January 30, 2017

I Was a Stranger

A bit over a year ago, in the midst of the Presidential campaign that no...

January 25, 2017

The “F” Word

There’s nothing like unexpectedly dropping an f-bomb on a bunch of students. But it’s even...

January 23, 2017

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Jeanne and I are great lovers of movies. As I have described in this blog...

January 04, 2017

The Sun and the Other Stars

On the west side of the stone entryway to the beautiful humanities center on my...

December 2016

December 16, 2016

I Will Bring You Home

Baptist preacher's kids get to do some very odd things. I memorized large portions of...

December 12, 2016

Constellations

I love the stars. Not as in “Dancing with . . .” or in Hollywood...

November 2016

November 11, 2016

As Good As We Make Them

The gospel reading for last Sunday was the Beatitudes from Matthew's gospel. It seems appropriate...

August 2016

August 26, 2016

They Will Never Take Our Freedom

Although I read incessantly, I don’t read a lot of magazines. The only magazine I...

June 2016

June 29, 2016

Raising the Bar

One of my greatest joys as a philosophy professor is that I get to be...

June 15, 2016

A Free Man of Faith

I wrote this essay last Saturday as a reflection on Muhammad Ali's memorial service that...

April 2016

April 01, 2016

Jesus, Moe, and Curly

IT'S APRIL FOOL'S DAY--A PERFECT TIME FOR SOME IRREVERENCE! One of my unexpected reading delights...

March 2016

March 02, 2016

The Ghosts of Jesus Past

My birthday is in four days (the big 6-0), so I'm doing a bit of...

January 2016

January 25, 2016

Give Us Barabbas

An annual musical fixture of my Baptist upbringing was the Easter Cantata. Each year on...

January 13, 2016

Fake It ‘Til You Make It

I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about God. That’s a strange thing...

December 2015

December 31, 2015

The Best and the Worst: A Wish for the New Year

Love does not say “I ought to love”—it loves. Pity does not say “It is...

October 2015

October 14, 2015

Reading the Fine Print

As predictable as the change of seasons is the point in any given semester when...

September 2015

September 23, 2015

Her Children Rise Up

I learned something interesting about giraffes from one of my colleagues the other day. He...

July 2015

July 06, 2015

Achieving Disagreement–in real time

God is in favor of same sex marriage because God placed a rainbow in the...

June 2015

June 24, 2015

There are More Things In Heaven and Earth . . .

Not long ago I received the following email out of the blue: “My name is ___ and...

June 17, 2015

My Best Friends

I sat down in my usual aisle seat on one of my infrequent airplane flights...

April 2015

April 17, 2015

We Are the Champions!

I admit it—hockey has never been my number one sport. That in itself is odd,...

November 2014

November 19, 2014

Celebrating Life

I recently submitted two grant proposals related to my sabbatical that will begin next July....

October 2014

October 15, 2014

The LTFTU Committee

I have recently been thinking a lot about faculty-administration relations, particularly about the various reasons...

August 2014

August 06, 2014

Humility and Wonder

Last Sunday's gospel focused on one of Jesus' signature miracles--the feeding of the five thousand....

July 2014

July 23, 2014

Venn Mysticism

To what extent can clear thinking and logical analysis help untangle the complexities of trying...

December 2013

December 09, 2013

The Peaceable Kingdom

Bleary-eyed at the 8;00 service yesterday morning, I noticed that a reproduction of the above...

November 2013

November 13, 2013

If You Meet God Along The Road . . .

One of my greatest joys as a philosophy professor is that I get to be...

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