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Development of Western Civilization

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July 2025

July 31, 2025

Do My Masculine and Feminine Side Like Each Other?

The Fall 2025 semester begins five weeks from last Tuesday. I guarantee that if you...

January 2025

January 12, 2025

Remembering an Excellent Colleague and Friend

I have been in a somber mood for the last few days, ever since the...

November 2023

November 26, 2023

The Difference Between Goats and GOATs

The last Sunday before Advent and the beginning of a new liturgical calendar year is...

September 2023

September 03, 2023

The Moral Life in One Sentence

A couple of years ago, I was interviewed in my office by a reporter from The...

September 01, 2022

Abortion and Faith Discussions: Begin How You Want It To End

I wrote this essay while I was on retreat in early July but, for reasons...

August 2022

August 14, 2022

“Whatever” is No Way to Live

Although I occasionally find myself immersed in things medieval with a bunch of freshmen in...

August 09, 2022

Remembering David McCullough and Why the Liberal Arts Matter More than Ever

I was saddened to hear that David McCullough, one of the great historians of his...

February 2022

February 27, 2022

Stop, Look, and Listen: A Transfiguration Sunday Reflection

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent....

November 2021

November 20, 2021

Mansplaining in the Bible, and a Woman Who Overcame It

At a recent department meeting, our department chair wondered whether it might be good for...

August 2021

August 26, 2021

Now It Begins . . .

In last few minutes of Franco Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth, Zerah pokes his head into the...

August 12, 2021

What is the Point of a Professor?

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

August 03, 2021

The Divine Plan for Delegating Authority: Just About Anything Goes

I recently had the opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation with the new Provost at...

June 2021

June 30, 2021

A Modest Proposal, Part Two: Why My Time Should Not Be For Sale

A week ago, I described a proposal concerning access to my services that I proposed...

June 24, 2021

A Modest Proposal: Should My Time Be For Sale?

My next book project is a memoir about the teaching life. I started gathering materials...

April 2021

April 29, 2021

Speak What We Feel, Not What We Ought to Say

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

April 07, 2021

A Doubting Disciple and a Bunch of Communists

In my “Markets and Morals” colloquium in the good old pre-pandemic days a couple of...

January 2021

January 24, 2021

Dealing With Our Inner Nazi

We ought not to hide from ourselves that Nazi Germany is a mirror for all...

December 2020

December 19, 2020

We Are the Hands and Feet of God

I begin with a couple of stories. Story #1: There has been vigorous debate on...

December 10, 2020

Advent 101–Finding a Retreat Within Yourself

We seek retreats for ourselves in country places, on beaches and mountains . . ....

November 2020

November 17, 2020

The Ancient Stoics in Zoom Land

I was asked a few days ago by someone in our Marketing and Communications area...

October 2020

October 12, 2020

All Things are Become New: A reminder of why teaching is the best profession of all

I realized this morning that exactly seven years ago, the beautiful humanities building on our...

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,...

February 2019

February 12, 2019

The Most Important Lesson from the Sermon on the Mount: Don’t be a Jerk

In his lovely little book Wishful Thinking, Frederick Buechner suggests that what we often dismiss as...

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...

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...

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,...

March 2018

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...

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