Category: Literature
Midsummer Night’s Dreaming: An Analysis
So, the following paper has consumed my attention the last week. My grad school application is now due in 72 hours, and I am finally “finished” with my paper. It was harder to write than I thought it would be–literature...
Why did God create? a poem
This question has puzzled theists for millenia, and its atheistic equivalent, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” has puzzled everyone else for equally as long. Augustine says, “But why did God choose then to create the heavens and earth...
Flirting with Christianity
Faith, it drives me away But it turns me on Like a strangers love -Muse With regard to a Jewish agnostic friend of ours, Matt Anderson once remarked that he is “flirting with Christianity.” This friend of ours is a...
Pride and Prejudice
I imagine I am somewhat putting my reputation on the line by making my reading of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice common and public knowledge; after all, it is not every day that one finds a military man consenting to...
Thoughts on Theaetetus: Volume IV
Why Volumes? I have no idea. It just seemed right. I missed last night’s session due to grading, but these are a few thoughts from tonight. Socrates’ relationship to Theaetetus is as a midwife to a person in labor, or...
Thoughts on Theaetetus: Volume III
The relationship between teacher and student can take many forms. Modern educational approaches value the teacher insofar as he imparts information to the pupil. But traditional education is more akin to soul-nurturing. In the Theaetetus, Theaetetus is praised by his...
Thoughts on Theaetetus: Volume II
Theaetetus is introduced by Theodorus, a teacher of geometery who praises Theatetus for being acute, manly, and above all, a man of unique and peculiar gentleness. But is Theaetetus, a man of some nobility, a good student? Theodorus praises him...
Thoughts on Theaetetus: Volume I
Every year or so I get the immense privilege of hanging out with Dr. Al Geier, mentor of Dr. John Mark Reynolds, student of Leo Strauss, and the nearest thing to Socrates I’ve seen yet. This year we’re reading the...
Lincoln as Literary Critic
On a recent reading of some of Abraham Lincoln’s letters and speeches, I discovered this interesting line in a letter to James Hackett, a Shakespearian actor: Some of Shakespeare’s plays I have never read; while others I have gone over...
On John and Homer
I wish I had thought of this. Leithart’s thoughts on the similarity between the Gospel of John and Homer’s Odyssey are, if nothing else, provocative: And throughout John’s gospel, Jesus is the elusive hero, the one born of the Spirit...