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April 2026

April 19, 2026

Teachers with Guns

In my ethics class last Thursday we began our final unit of the semester: Gun...

April 12, 2026

Thomas–My Doubting Hero

The Second Sunday of Easter is always "Doubting Thomas Sunday," an opportunity for me to...

March 2026

March 25, 2026

White Privilege in the Classroom

Today I am starting a unit on race issues in my ethics class. For the...

February 2026

February 18, 2026

An Ash Wednesday and Lenten Tale

Today is Ash Wednesday, which for a hardcore Protestant such as I presents several issues....

December 2025

December 28, 2025

The Chocolate Bible

Today's gospel reading is the the beautifully poetic first verses of John's gospel, staring with...

October 2025

October 26, 2025

Be Merciful to Me, A Sinner . . .

Today's gospel reading reminds me of an August day several years ago when the small...

October 19, 2025

“Hello, God!”

You can either think of the creeds of the great traditions . . . as...

September 2025

September 28, 2025

Do Moral Absolutes Exist?

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

August 2025

August 10, 2025

That Sounds Like Prayer

We are all going to die! That's just so awful. I didn't agree to this....

July 2025

July 29, 2025

God is Non-Binary

My baseline criterion for whether a particular class has gone well is to answer the...

July 27, 2025

We Are Not Special

A regular occurrence at home Providence Friars basketball games is when, during one of the...

June 2025

June 24, 2025

Making Things Difficult

A couple of weeks ago in the morning I was greeted in the driveway with...

June 15, 2025

How to be Good

I'm re-working a full draft of my next book project--Nice Work If You Can Get...

June 01, 2025

On the Art of Discussion

I'm currently reading through my book Nice Work If You Can Get It for the first time...

May 2025

May 29, 2025

How Alasdair MacIntyre Changed How I Teach Ethics

Alasdair MacIntyre, one of the most important philosophers of his generation, died last week at...

May 25, 2025

Is Our Experiment in Democracy Failing?

Memorial Day is a time to honor those who have made sacrifices over the years,...

April 2025

April 29, 2025

Being a Philosopher and a Christian

There may be no need to reconcile all one’s beliefs with all one’s other beliefs—no...

March 2025

March 14, 2025

A Return to the Problem of Evil–Part One

This week is Spring Break at my college--a week I am using to catch up...

January 2025

January 14, 2025

Now it Begins (Again)

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

January 03, 2025

What Is Your Moral Anchor?

Is it ever right to hold a grudge? Is resentment or unforgiveness ever justified? These...

September 2024

September 22, 2024

The Wisdom of Trees

In Psalm 1, one of the psalm options in today's lectionary readings, the righteous are...

September 20, 2024

Why Being Uncomfortable is a Good Thing

A new podcast that I've been enjoying recently is Ali Velshi's "Banned Book Club"--I highly...

September 17, 2024

Jesus and a Four-Letter Word

Next week will be one of my favorite teaching weeks of the semester as I...

September 15, 2024

Comfort is vastly overrated

In the interdisciplinary, team-taught course I am participating in this semester, we spent our second...

September 13, 2024

Corrupted Memory Files

My youngest son, Justin, has a remarkable memory–for, as he puts it, “totally useless facts.”...

September 06, 2024

First Day of Class Dreams and Nightmares

Last Tuesday was the first day of classes on my campus for the 2024-25 academic...

August 2024

August 30, 2024

Getting Comfortable with Paradox

It is standard fare for Christians to believe that human beings are made of body...

August 13, 2024

Having the Right “Niyyah”

I recently heard an interview on NPR with Rami Nashashibi, a professor of sociology who...

August 02, 2024

The Dangers of Unexamined Faith

He lived over two millennia ago, and as far as we know he never wrote...

July 2024

July 26, 2024

A Young Woman Confronts Her Inherent Racism

It's been a crazy week, hasn't it? I have deliberately avoided going political on this...

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