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March 2020

March 05, 2020

When I’m Sixty-Four

"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?" Paul McCartney,...

February 2020

February 18, 2020

When an Important Memory Turns Out to be Wrong

My youngest son, Justin, has a remarkable memory--for, as he puts it, "totally useless facts."...

February 13, 2020

“Custodians of each other’s well-being”–A Reflection for Valentine’s Week

Human love in the purest forms we can know it, wife and husband, parent and...

February 04, 2020

Profiles in Cowardice: Moving forward after the impeachment trial

Unless a miracle occurs, the impeachment trial of Donald John Trump will end today, with...

January 2020

January 28, 2020

When to Care, and When Not to Care

The only way I can get through the tedium of working out on an aerobic...

January 19, 2020

American Airlines 4395, Bombing Raids Over Germany, and a Spark of the Divine

Perhaps a novel whose main character is the squadron leader for World War II bombing...

January 16, 2020

Best of 2019 #3: When Christianity Becomes an Angry and Fearful Faith

Last June, I used essays by Michael Gerson and Marilynne Robinson to explore what happens...

January 12, 2020

What Really Happened that Day at the Jordan River?

The season of Epiphany, squeezed in between the Christmas season and Lent, is the annual...

January 03, 2020

Best of 2019 #5: Is Donald Trump the “Chosen One”?

On this third day of the New Year, I am grateful for many things--including the...

December 2019

December 31, 2019

Letting God Creep In

About halfway through his lengthy essay, Schjeldahl notes his agreement with one of Weil’s...

December 12, 2019

“It has been done in your name”: A Dickensian Tale of “Good Christians” Doing Harm

One of my teaching teammates this past semester in the interdisciplinary course I regularly participate...

December 10, 2019

Living in a Minor Key

At some point early in their musical training, all serious musicians are introduced to the...

December 08, 2019

There Is No Immaculate Perception

I have taught philosophy in Catholic higher education for twenty-eight years as a non-Catholic. Although...

December 05, 2019

Preserving Hope when Things Turn Dark

For the past several years, I have had the privilege of giving a sermon at...

December 01, 2019

Living in the Advent Zone

In Philosophical Fragments, 19th-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard tells a lovely story about a powerful king...

November 2019

November 21, 2019

What Are You Afraid Of?

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with a young man named...

November 14, 2019

Political Jesus: No, it’s not an oxymoron

In a well-known and often-quoted passage from the Jewish scriptures, the prophet Micah asks a...

November 10, 2019

Christianity is not a brand or a demographic

In “Slander,” from her latest collection of essays, What Are We Doing Here?, Marilynne Robinson writes...

November 08, 2019

Does God Exist? What would a betting person say?

During a recent unit in my General Ethics class called “Does ethics have anything to...

November 06, 2019

Saint Andrew, Bagpipes, and Cats

I had a lovely lunch last week with one of my best and most valued...

October 2019

October 22, 2019

Living the Dream and Getting S**t Done

Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. This, promises...

October 20, 2019

A Question for Atheists and Theists: How Much Evidence is “Enough”?

This past week I started a unit in my General Ethics students called “Does God...

October 13, 2019

Has Donald Trump Lost the Mandate of Heaven?

Evangelical Christian icon and fossil Pat Robertson lost it a few days ago. On his...

October 11, 2019

A Liberal’s Worst Nightmare: Bridging the gap between words and actions

One of my teaching colleagues and mentors used to love to tell the story of...

October 09, 2019

Stop Trying to Resurrect a Dead God

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

October 05, 2019

Spiritual Lessons Learned from an Obese Cat: A reflection for “Blessing of the Animals” Sunday

I was reminded yesterday that exactly eight years ago, one of my favorite pictures of...

September 2019

September 28, 2019

Being Open to the Possibility of God: An excerpt from my new book “Prayer for People Who Don’t Believe in God”

I am pleased to announce that my new book, Prayer for People Who Don't Believe in...

September 17, 2019

Why No One Has the Right to be “Comfortable”

An item popped up on my Facebook news feed a couple of days ago reporting...

September 15, 2019

What if God is just the lead character in an interesting story?

The best argument in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that...

September 13, 2019

Jesus and Karl Marx walk into a adult beverage establishment . . .

We should read the New Testament as saying that how we treat each other on...

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