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A Practicing Atheist
Simone Weil writes that “Atheism is a purification.” Not where I come from. No word or phrase was more mysterious or terror producing for a young Baptist boy than “atheist.” I certainly didn’t know...
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God’s Worst Idea
I spent the Spring 2009 semester on sabbatical as a Resident Scholar at the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in Collegeville, MN. Father Kilian McDonnell is a living legend...
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Haunted by Humans
Christmas break is the time for reading fiction. I have very little time to read fiction during the semester, unless a work of fiction is involved in one of the courses I am teaching (as it always is)....
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How to be Good
A Polish Franciscan priest. A Lutheran pastor and theologian. A French, Jewish social activist attracted to Marxism. A French novelist and philosopher. A group of young German college students. The...
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Two Plus Two Makes Four
In J. M. Coetzee’s strange and fascinating novel The Childhood of Jesus, the precocious child David has a difficult time understanding numbers. Oh, he knows their names but is not inclined to put them...
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Fear Itself
Last Monday a segment of one of the NPR shows I listen to frequently was dedicated to the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, particularly focused on President Franklin Delano...
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The Asshole Saint
One of my favorite courses is one that I am scheduled to team-teach for the third time with a colleague from the history department next spring. “Love Never Fails: Grace, Truth, and Freedom in the Nazi...
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