Developing an Ecological Orientation Through the Narrative Imagination
For the last several weeks I have been trying to develop an ecological orientation through the narrative imagination. By ecological orientation, I mean “a new consciousness of the country” or “a new relation to it,” as the narrator of O...
Christian Ethics in a Technological Age
I recently broadcast new and upcoming titles of interest, but a clear stand-out emerges. Here’s the career of an inquiry. First, there was Lewis Mumford’s Technics and Civilization (1934). Then there was Martin Heidegger’s “The Question Concerning Technology” (1953). Then,...
Basil the Great: A Theology of Reading
When I taught humanities at a Christian secondary school, I spent the first week or so of the fall semester exploring how Christians should read because I anticipated that the pagan literature of the Greeks and Romans would chafe against...
The Academic Program at St. John’s College
I earned my master’s degree in liberal arts from the Graduate Institute of St. John’s College (Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico). Mortimer Adler famously said in How to Read a Book, “There is one college that I know...
New and Upcoming Books of Interest: Fall/Winter 2010-11
Blogging has several functions. One function that I particularly enjoy is broadcasting what’s “out there,” an appropriately vague phrase to capture the bewildering number of events, films, and books that deserve attention. I informed Mere O readers about recent films...
The Title Waiting for Mr. Benson’s Book
Mr. Anderson has written a fun blog post on titles waiting for a book. I hope all the contributors will offer their own titles. If I should ever write a book, which I plan to do at some point when...
Failing to Acknowledge the Reality of Evil
Why do people fail to acknowledge the reality of evil? My progressive friends––a list which is getting shorter and shorter––were baffled by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. They lacked a vocabulary and worldview to describe what happened....
Postmodernism: What Hath Paris to Do with Jerusalem?
If you are skeptical about postmodern thought, I encourage you to check out “The Church and Postmodern Series” by Baker Academic, which “features high-profile theorists in continental philosophy and contemporary theology writing for a broad, nonspecialist audience interested in the...
Understanding vocation, humanity, and politics through the metaphor of music
Maya Angelou says he “thinks like a sage, acts like a warrior and writes like a poetical prophet.” Henry Louis Gates, Jr. says he is “the pre-eminent African-American intellectual of our generation.” And Marian Wright Edelman says he is “one...
The Culture Wars Played Out in the American Cinema House
We have seen it before and we will see it again: the culture wars played out in the American cinema house, this time covering the topics of same-sex marriage, Darwinism, and Evangelical scandal. Check out the trailers for these recent...