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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 18, 2023

Do I Teach or Am I a Teacher? On Being a Verb Rather than a Noun

I have two book projects in the works these days. I just finished a full...

June 2023

June 04, 2023

Good Times with the Trinity

It’s Trinity Sunday. Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to explain that very strange...

April 2023

April 20, 2023

So What? Now What?

Regular readers of this blog, or even those who just occasionally drop in, know that...

April 13, 2023

Jesus, Death, and Taxes

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

April 11, 2023

A Very Reluctant Rose

A few days ago on campus I detected a familiar, seasonal odor wafting on the...

April 04, 2023

What Happens at the Fig Tree Stays at the Fig Tree

For those unfamiliar with the liturgical calendar, the Sunday and feast day assigned readings rotate...

February 2023

February 24, 2023

Why Did Jesus Turn Water Into Wine?

This is the third day of Lent. Are you one of those people who give...

February 19, 2023

Longing to be Whole: A Reflection for Transfiguration Sunday

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

February 09, 2023

Why I am Triggered by Trigger Warnings

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace....

January 2023

January 24, 2023

We are to be God in the World

This coming Sunday's gospel reading is the Beatitudes from Matthew, the opening lines from the...

January 10, 2023

Are You the One?

During both the Advent and the Epiphany liturgical seasons, John the Baptist gets a lot...

January 01, 2023

Hope in Unexpected Form—A New Year’s Day Reflection

Every New Year’s Day for the past decade—the amount of time I have been writing...

December 2022

December 29, 2022

Is it the end of us? An end-of-the-year reflection

He who loves his life will lose it. John 12:25 I subscribe to two magazines, The...

December 20, 2022

Not Exactly What I Had Planned

If you have been a regular reader of this blog for a while (there are...

December 10, 2022

Things are Getting Real: A Conversation Between Jesus and John the Baptist

In a second season episode of “The Chosen,” a multi-year cinematic treatment of the life...

November 2022

November 25, 2022

Get Thee Behind Me, Santa!

Today is Black Friday, on my shortlist of candidates for the stupidest day of the...

October 2022

October 18, 2022

How is your Optimism Doing These Days?

A few weeks ago in the interdisciplinary Honors course that I am team-teaching in this...

October 11, 2022

If You Meet a Stranger and If He’s Hungry, Feed Him

Yesterday was Columbus Day. Correction, it was Indigenous Peoples Day. This is not energized by...

October 06, 2022

What it is Like to Be a Snob

A bit over a week ago at my brother-in-law’s wake, I spent several minutes chatting...

September 2022

September 25, 2022

Which Is More Dangerous–Moral Certainty or Moral Relativism?

Do moral absolutes exist? Is human engagement with moral principles more like a treasure hunt,...

September 04, 2022

Exploring the Studio Space with God

Guess what? I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. Bruce Dickinson Regular...

August 2022

August 27, 2022

What the Wounds on Jesus’ Resurrected Body Tell Us

I consider myself to be well informed and well read, but every once in a...

August 20, 2022

Something More Powerful than Our Virtues

One of the habits that having a puppy in the house for the past ten...

June 2022

June 30, 2022

Cassidy Hutchinson and a Story from Ancient Syria

Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony before the January 6th Select Committee last Tuesday was both powerful and...

June 16, 2022

What They Don’t Tell Us About Wisdom–Part One

In much wisdom there is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Ecclesiastes...

May 2022

May 24, 2022

Save Your Thoughts and Prayers. Do Something

Here we are again. Mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvaldi in the past few days,...

April 2022

April 28, 2022

Organizing Books is My Charism

Last weekend, Jeanne and I took a quick trip to Greenville, South Carolina to attend...

March 2022

March 09, 2022

Confessions of a Tree Hugger

For the twenty-five-plus years that Jeanne and I have lived in our house, the lot...

March 06, 2022

It’s My 66th Birthday, and I’m Still Here. Deal with it.

Early last week a friend emailed me the following comment in response to my latest...

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