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February 2023

February 04, 2023

What Can We Do Now That There Is No God?

One of the matters I am paying close attention to this semester, as I prepare...

January 2023

January 28, 2023

An Epiphany Worthy of the Season

I have heard of you with my ears, but now my eyes have seen you. The...

January 26, 2023

Deciding Whom You Belong To

Five years ago, my college celebrated its centennial. For Jeanne and me, the highlight of...

January 22, 2023

When the Well Runs Dry

Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12 In...

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...

January 15, 2023

Mansplaining in the Bible

At a department meeting not long ago, our department chair wondered whether it might be...

December 2022

December 18, 2022

A Stepfather with a Questionable Pedigree

In my religious tradition, we didn’t do saints. But we did do Christmas pageants—big time....

December 07, 2022

Why Should We Be Hopeful?

Herodotus is considered to be the first true historian in the contemporary sense of the...

November 2022

November 29, 2022

Living the Social Gospel: Your faith is not just about you

In the interdisiplinary and team-taught honors course I am teaching in this academic year, we...

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...

September 2022

September 15, 2022

This Book Changed My Life: Kathleen Norris’ “The Cloister Walk”

I asked my Facebook friends at the beginning of the summer to list three or...

September 05, 2022

What Does the Lord Require of Us? A Labor Day Reflection

There are a couple of sayings attributed to Jesus that Christians often use when attempting...

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 16, 2022

When Your Imaginary Friend Is Real

From as early as I can remember, I had an invisible butler. My mother enjoyed...

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 07, 2022

This Book Changed My Life: Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead”

I asked my Facebook friends a while ago to list three or four books that...

August 02, 2022

A Trip to the Zoo Reminds Me of My Mother

Jeanne and I hosted our grand-nephews last week--I forgot what it is like to have...

July 2022

July 30, 2022

Some Crooked Things Don’t Need to be Made Straight

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. Immanuel Kant...

July 27, 2022

The Shy Deer-Soul Inside of You

As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O...

July 23, 2022

Negotiating with God

I have the privilege of giving the sermon today at Trinity Episcopal Church in Pawtuxet,...

July 18, 2022

Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream

I’ve been thinking a lot about end of life issues lately. Really. They seem to...

July 14, 2022

Some Things Repair Themselves, and Some Things Do Not

My recently concluded crappy month of June ended with a minor fender-bender, the result of...

July 09, 2022

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

A couple of weeks ago I posted an essay called “What They Don’t Tell Us...

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 28, 2022

Four-Legged Trust

Jeanne’s and my 9-month-old corgi, Bovina, has been the center of our lives since we...

June 19, 2022

What To Do When It Isn’t Working

What do you do when it just isn’t working? In the life of a teacher,...

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...

June 07, 2022

How Should a Normal Person Approach the Bible?

I recently came across a great podcast called “The Bible for Normal People,” hosted by...

May 2022

May 19, 2022

Making Darkness and Silence your Friends

Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk to you again. “The Sound of Silence”...

May 17, 2022

An Evolving Faith: It’s About Survival, not Progress

To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes...

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