Seamus Heaney, Isolation, and the Catholic Worker
“Educating Humans.” I’m relishing the new issue of Plough. Alex Sosler has a great essay on trade schools, Tim Maendel describes one teacher’s creative...
Milton, Babbitt, and Auden
“AI and All Its Splendors.” I continue my mulling on AI and its underlying temptations in this lengthy essay for Christianity Today. I aim...
Progress, Tyson, and Messiah
I'll be taking the next couple of weeks off for the Christmas holidays. Look for these to resume in January.
“Can a Phone-Free Learning Environment...
Civilization, Family, and Charity
“Against Christian Civilization.” Paul Kingsnorth’s Erasmus Lecture is now out in essay form: “I believe there is wisdom to be found for us, in...
Wheeler Catlett, the Study, and Democracy
“The Berry Center Journal.” The fall issue of the Berry Center Journal includes an opening letter from Mary Berry, a 1989 speech by John...
Local Sports, Being Homeless, and the Reading Wars
"An Education in Thanksgiving." Rachel Alexander Cambre gives a very perceptive reading of Hannah Coulter: "Stories that bring the past to life, on the...
RFK Jr., Hunting, and Prison
“The Moses Option.” Paul Kingsnorth writes against the dangerous allure of activism: “What is the ‘solution’ to our modern ‘problem’? For a start, it...
Grimsby, Bureaucracy, and Brave New World
“Left Behind in Grimsby.” Simon Cross narrates the tensions he experienced ministering in a neighborhood where he wasn’t stuck: “There’s a feeling of inadequacy...
Syncretism, Saints, and Childhood
“Against Syncretism, For Christians Building Like Christians.” Jake Meador provides a good summary of and response to Paul Kingsnorth’s recent lecture: “Bucer's measure of...
Dinosaurs, Screens, and Symbols
“Dinner with Dinosaurs.” In a wide-ranging and probing essay, Lauren Spohn considers what kind of narrative we need to motivate human action and guide...