Category: Society
Tim Keller: Missionary to the Cities
On Sundays, I go to a church whose senior pastor and elder board were mentored by Tim Keller. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I attend classes in a seminary brought to New York by Tim Keller. When I see a homeless...
Does Maturity Still Matter?
I’ve been reading Mark Sayers’s interesting book A Non-Anxious Presence, and was particularly struck by this passage: As a network is swamped by chronic anxiety, it is marked by reactivity. Those within the system no longer act rationally, but rather,...
The End of Viking Vitalism
The third act of Robert Zemeckis’s underrated Beowulf adaptation begins with a dour meditation. “We men are the monsters now,” the aging hero rumbles. “The time of heroes is dead, Wiglaf—the Christ God has killed it, leaving humankind with nothing...
Help My Unbelief
The doctors say she’s dying, but everything looks much the same. A plastic tube continues to supply every breath, various fluids continue to drip into her veins, her legs remain swollen, and an eyelid hasn’t fluttered in days, not even...
Once More, Church and Culture
Christendom is the name we give to Christian civilization, when society, culture, law, art, family, politics, and worship are saturated by the church’s influence and informed by its authority. Christendom traces its beginnings to the fourth century after Christ; it...
Three Challenges for Talking About Health
Sandro Galea. Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 274pp, $28.95. One of my favorite ways to orient new medical students on the clinical team is to riff on...
Os Guinness: The Christian Public Intellectual After Jacques Maritain
“Nothing is possible without men, But nothing lasts without institutions.” — Jean Monnet[1] Christians interested in public intellectual engagement often ask: “who is the next C.S. Lewis? Who is the next Reinhold Niebuhr?” While the words and ideas of both...
The World that Money Makes Go Round
“Stick man lives in the family tree With his Stick Lady Love and their stick children three.” So begins Stick Man—my son’s favourite bedtime story. Parents of a certain age will know it well. Julia Donaldson (of The Gruffalo fame) spins a lovely...
Why Are Young Conservatives Less Depressed?
In a recent essay, Matt Yglesias attempted to explain the curious but well-documented phenomenon of why younger progressive minded teens are consistently more depressed than their conservative counterparts.
The Legacy of Lena Horne
In the spring of 2010, I accepted a job with a student tour company to lead a group of middle schoolers from Anniston, Alabama, around New York City. This group wanted a tour that highlighted Black history and culture, and...