Category Archives: Books

New Year’s Hobbit

It took me a little longer than usual to get ahold of this year’s Tolkien calendar.  When I finally remembered my need to order it around Christmas time, it was nigh impossible to find.  Not at Amazon.  Not at Barnes … Continue reading

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Gospel and Church, Mold and Platform

In his survey of failing institutions in American life, Yuval Levin writes about the church in the “close to home” section (which also includes the family and community organizations.  While he writes about the loss of authority of the Catholic … Continue reading

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Playing our Roles Fittingly (Civics Edition)

In class I often revisit the question of “how can I play my role fittingly?” in light of the biblical story.  This is a nod to both N. T. Wright’s “five-act play” of the biblical story and Kevin Vanhoozer’s “drama … Continue reading

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Living with Loss

Last week America posted a short reflection by James K. A. Smith about how Christians handle loss.  What begins with a nod to Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead takes a personal turn that I found difficult and brilliant.  Smith writes: A number … Continue reading

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Reading in 2020

2019 was an interesting year in reading for me.  I continued to try and find points of connection between faith and learning.  I tried to revisit favorites like Lewis and Tolkien while also diving a little deeper with thinkers like … Continue reading

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Wordsworth’s “Old Man Traveling”

While in England, we spent a couple of days in the Lake District, the stomping grounds of William Wordsworth.  We spent some time at his house, Rydal Mount, and then walked the Coffin Trail down into Grasmere.  We also spent … Continue reading

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Concerning King John

While in Stratford over break, we had the opportunity to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s version of King John.  KJ is not that well-known a play, of course, and I can imagine that there are many reasons why.  Where it … Continue reading

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Back from the Road

Yesterday was a day of airports and airplanes.  We left our hotel in Edinburgh at 6:45 in the morning and touched down in Honolulu around 10:30 last night.  Along the way we stopped in (and ran through) the airport in … Continue reading

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On the Road Again

I write this entry from the D terminal of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. After six hours flying from Honolulu to Texas and a good seven hours’ layover a few miles from Cowtown, my traveling group and I are ready to … Continue reading

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Sunday’s Best: The WuMo Filter

This week’s “Sunday’s Best” is actually last week’s “Sunday’s Best.”  I did not get around to posting last week’s WuMo which did a great job of capturing something critical about our particular moment in time. I’ve found my use of … Continue reading

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