Articles 355
Ishiguro’s New Novel Contemplates the Relationship between Humans, Machines, and the Natural World
Sterling, KS. In Kazuo Ishiguro’s eighth novel, Klara and the Sun (2021), the humans believe in science. The titular character, however, believes in the Sun. Klara is a solar-powered robot whose…
Intellectual Grounding: A Conversation with Wes Jackson
It’s hard to escape from beauty if you’re ready to observe the biotic activity and geologic history of the world. Beauty is essential, and I’m saying that, even with the…
Livin’ la Vida Litúrgica
A final benefit of the liturgical lifestyle is its uniting force. Liturgical and sanctoral calendars vary among Christian confessions, echoing more divisive pieties and doctrines. But when the things Christians…
Pretend It’s a Book
Fran Liebowitz suggests that “a book isn’t supposed to be a mirror, it’s supposed to be a door.” Universities are the same. They are not meant to simply reflect the…
The Light of Wisdom’s Face: Sophia in Exile by Michael Martin
The only thing that can save the world from a lost Christianity is a Cross-centered Christianity. Can Christians take the truths from both Life Is A Miracle and Sophia In…
Finding Common Ground on Climate: A Review of Saving Us
In the balance, Hayhoe’s book makes a positive contribution to the climate conversation. The book encourages dialogue rather than hectoring. In that sense, though the targeted topic is climate change,…
Life Under Sycamores
Frank Mulder is preaching the same Gospel. Pictures of Frank Mulder make him look like he could be a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, on a bicycle, planting sycamores instead of apple…
Opting Out of the Outrage Machine: A Review of Bad News
My least-favorite bumper sticker of all time reads, "If you're not outraged you're not paying attention." As a remedy for this sort of dopamine-fueled attitude, the author suggests that we…
Scenes of Arrival, Stories of Home
Here are three novels about three places in the world. Each conveys not just a perfunctory setting but a web of topography, livelihoods, pastimes, and lore. And in each the…
The Place (and Place-ness) of Occupy, Ten Years On
Holding up a sign, sitting at a lunch counter, sticking a flower in a gun, setting up a tent, and occupying a space in the face state and corporate power…
Buddy from Belfast: Pondering How to Belong
Belfast is a lovely movie for remembering the power that places have in defining who we are and the beauty of belonging well, even to a broken place.
Canadian Story Cycles: A Conversation with author John Van Rys
Van Rys hopes readers are shaped by his tales of domestic comedy to see that love for the long haul, difficult as it is, is not only possible but greatly…
Sonnets in Advent with Dunstan Thompson
Dunstan Thompson's poetic prayer reminds me how necessary Advent is and leaves me grateful for Christ’s work that makes his former foes members of his household.
“unsafe, unnumb”: The Unshod Poetry of Bower Lodge
This is poetry that focuses its readers on the true, good, and beautiful. Here, we are reminded that Christ took on flesh like ours, that he was born as we…
The Lessor of Two Evils: How Fracking Damaged the Landscape and Entrenched Cultural Divides In Pennsylvania Communities
There aren’t easy answers to the problems fracking creates, and, like many industries, fracking generates losers and winners. But by spending time up close with the issues, Jerolmack models a…
Fact’s Two Faces: On the Masking of Children at School
Life is ambiguous, murky, rife with situations that elude dogma’s capture. When the seas get rough, however, our tolerance of this is one of the first things hucked overboard. For…
Reviving the Cult of Citizenship: Tony Woodlief’s I, Citizen
If you do follow Woodlief's advice, you'll need a thick skin and a dogged commitment to first principles. Self-government takes time and effort, and too many people really do want…
Speaking Freely in Times of Crisis: A Conversation with Paul Kemeny, Ben Faber, and Richard Gamble
Examining, with Paul Kemeny, Richard Gamble, and Ben Faber, fraught moments in history where questions about communication and censorship, politics and propaganda, freedom and government intervention came to a head.…
“Oh, Wow.” A Benediction for Ed McClanahan
Immortality might not last forever. But I contend that Ed will—through his words and through the lives of those he touched with his generosity and his grace. All of which…
Columbiana: In Want of Cram
Neither Columbiana nor Sewickley perfectly realize the role of Cram’s ideal walled town, but Sewickley comes much closer. While not perfect, it offers a real-world example of an economically vibrant,…
The Contradictions within My Students’ Request for Diverse Curricula
The imagined student’s intentions are honorable: to promote racial justice. But when the conversation begins, she has already set herself against the teacher and the course. The task of the…
The Hidden Life of Ignatius J. Reilly
John Kennedy Toole denies Ignatius such a happy ending, subverting the traditional redemption narrative. In so doing, he arguably gives us a better portrait of what life actually tends to…
Poetry and Politics with A.M. Juster
Michael J. Astrue has earned degrees from Yale and Harvard. He had a long and distinguished legal career and held several government positions as well as leadership posts in biotech…
Ted Lasso and the Temptation of “Aww, Shucks” Idealism
Is there an alternative to the Ted Lasso cynicism-versus-optimism dichotomy, an alternative that recognizes human limitations but nonetheless offers hope? I might start with becoming attentive enough to our ignorance,…
