A Primer on Religious Existentialism, Pt. 2: My Kind of Atheist
It is not reasonable to expect everyone to share the same religious views, and since it can be difficult to see God’s hand in our violent and hate-filled universe, I…
Moral Equivalency, Sad Clowns, and World War II
In my last few years of college, when I knew I was headed toward graduate school but didn’t know what the experience would be like, I found myself groping, nearly…
The God who Restores Life: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 6 June 2010
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 6 June 2010 (Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year C) 1 Kings 17:8-16, (17-24) and Psalm 146 • 1 Kings 17:17-24 and Psalm 30 • Galatians…
"Civil Disobedience" and Political Cowardice
I dislike Walden so intensely and thoroughly that I’ve somehow avoided reading Henry David Thoreau’s other great masterwork, the much shorter “Civil Disobedience,” until this year. The joke was on…
Breaking Our Silence for Walker Percy
Walker Percy, the guy on the far right of our banner, died twenty years ago today. His death was in its way a victory. He’d contracted tuberculosis in the early…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #21: Literary Criticism
That’s the end of Season 2, folks. We’ve had a great time doing the show, and we’re glad you listen. We explain our summer plans in the show itself. Keep…
Attack of the Pathetic Fallacy
I do not recall when I first encountered the notion of a pathetic fallacy: a literature course, doubtless, but I’ve had many of those. I was almost certainly an undergraduate,…
The Independence of Characters: Another Response to Sam Mulberry
So, we got some interesting email comments this week from Sam Mulberry, which Nate explains at the beginning of his own response post. (Go ahead and read it, if you…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #19: Detective Fiction
Our theme song this week is Chagall Guevara’s “Murder in the Big House” from their self-titled 1991 album–a forgotten gem. General Introduction – The Christian Humanist Circus – Responses to…
The Great American Novel
I first read Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita during my second semester of college, reading it furtively and fifty minutes at a time during an Old Testament class. (I would take another…
For our English Lit Students…
Worried about that English lit test coming up? Too busy to concern yourself with all that “Old English”? Here’s a handy reference from GraphJam to help you out! I don’t…
Joy Enclosed: A Tale of Two Julies
Yesterday, April 8, was the feast day of a saint: St. Julie Billiart. I’d not heard of St. Julie before: she’s not medieval, so one won’t find her in the…
Seven Stanzas at Easter
Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will…
Hobbits, Monsters, and Augustine
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. And so he did: Bilbo Baggins, that is. However, the opening sentence of Tolkien’s story could just as easily describe…