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June 2022

June 23, 2022

Problems with the Soul

Last week I posted an essay called “Left-Brain Christianity or Right-Brain Faith?” which discussed the...

June 21, 2022

So You Want to be Free? Face your Demons

Iris Murdoch is one of my favorite philosophers and novelists, a writer whose work is...

June 03, 2022

Faith Needs Many Things, But It Doesn’t Need a Creed

One Sunday I decided to pay close attention to the words of the Nicene Creed...

June 01, 2022

Being a Philosopher Makes Me a Better Christian

I am not a regular reader of Christianity Today, but the title of Jon Ward’s...

May 2022

May 28, 2022

Passing the Baton: An Ascension Sunday Reflection

A disturbingly common mishap in recent Summer Olympic games has been the failure of U.S....

May 23, 2022

The Story I am Willing to be Wrong About

My political scientist Dominican priest friend and colleague, who was my teaching partner in our...

May 21, 2022

Some Advice for the Graduating Seniors: Don’t Forget About the Room at the Back of your Shop

Today is Commencement Day for the Class of 2022 at my college. Commencement is always...

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...

May 14, 2022

A Story About Learning to See Things Differently

In a comment on last Thursday’s blog post—“God is Not a Vending Machine”—a Facebook friend...

May 10, 2022

Saying Something Profound

Regular classes for the spring semester ended last Friday--semesters seem to go by more quickly...

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...

April 26, 2022

The Wisdom of Socrates’ Younger Brother–Mediocrates

A Facebook friend who knows that I am a philosophy professor sent me a thought-provoking...

April 19, 2022

A Physical Body Plus Something More

The central theme of my ethics class last fall was human dignity. Through short stories,...

April 14, 2022

Falling Asleep in All the Wrong Places: A Maundy Thursday Reflection

Some people can sleep anywhere. One of those people was a student in one of...

April 06, 2022

Perfection or Slight Improvment?

I have no idea why or how Miss Katrina Munn, a graduate of Julliard School...

April 04, 2022

What Playing Wordle has Taught Me About Myself

It seems that just about everyone I know is playing “Wordle” every day. I asked...

April 02, 2022

Martha or Mary? Type A or Type not-A?

The stereotype of the Type A personality has become an entrenched part of cultural lore....

March 2022

March 20, 2022

The Will of God: How to Know It?

Midterm grades are due on my campus by midnight Wednesday; last Wednesday was the official...

March 15, 2022

The God Who is With Us and Forsakes Us

This week in my "Faith and Doubt" seminar we are encountering Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of...

March 12, 2022

Is a Ukrainian Life Worth Higher Gas Prices?

A regular reader of my blog asked the other day whether I might want to...

March 03, 2022

What if Jesus Turned the Stones into Bread?

The Gospel reading in this coming Sunday’s lectionary for the first Sunday of Lent is...

March 01, 2022

An Assignment for Lent: Learn the Difference Between Solitude and Being Alone

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to yourself. Michel...

February 2022

February 24, 2022

The Cruelest Thing a Person Can Say

I detect that a rebellion against all things “religious” is growing on me. Often it...

February 22, 2022

Faith and Insecurity

Have you never felt like one of those pawns forgotten in a corner of the...

February 20, 2022

Faithful Failures–A Presidents’ Day Reflection

It's Presidents’ Day weekend, which for college professors means--as do all Monday holidays in the...

February 10, 2022

No One Cares if You are Comfortable or Not

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

February 05, 2022

Dear Persons of Faith: Stop Trying to Prove that God Exists

In Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gilead, Reverend John Ames (one of my top...

February 03, 2022

Revisiting the Garden of Eden

I am not overstating the case when I say that I was raised on original...

February 01, 2022

My Mistress and Me

At the beginning of the first seminar in my “Faith and Doubt” colloquium, I asked...

January 2022

January 30, 2022

Decorating the Dungeon

I am currently rereading Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway for one of my team-taught...

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