Which Sport Has the Most Home Runs?
“Separate Truths” by Stephen Prothero Relationships between traditions are my intellectual bread and butter. When I started studying the various influences of Anglican sacramental life, Presbyterian church polity, Scottish Enlightenment…
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…
Whose Apostolic Succession?
When I was (briefly) a catechumen in the Orthodox Church, one of the big sticking points for me was the concept of apostolic succession. When an Orthodox Christian, reciting the…
An Excuse for a Missing Lectionary Post
Revised Common Lectionary Readings for 1 May 2010 (Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C) Acts 11:1-18 • Psalm 148 • Revelation 21:1-6 • John 13:31-35 A thousand apologies to our…
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,…
Media Ecology and the Reformation: Some Brief Thoughts
The Christian Humanist crew got an email from Ford Seeuws, listener and friend of Michial Farmer, last week, and the questions were interesting enough that I wanted to deal with…
Commercial Break II: Erasmus and Calvin
For our next pair of mugs, we’ve chosen another pair of familiar faces: Desiderius Erasmus, the CHP poster boy, and John Calvin, the subject of our second podcast. (Seems so…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #20: Judas Iscariot
This week’s theme music is “Judas Skin” from the Vigilantes of Love record Slow Dark Train. General Introduction – What’s on the blog? – An historical moment for the Christian…
Book Review: The Bridge
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama By David Remnick 656 pp. Illustrated. Alfred A. Knopf. $29.95 Early on in his massive new biography of Barack Obama, cryptically…
Time and Belief: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 25 April 2010
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 25 April 2010 (Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C) Acts 9:36-43 • Psalm 23 • Revelation 7:9-17 • John 10:22-30 I really should keep track…
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…
Statistics and Narrative: A Response to Sam Mulberry
After the Christian Humanist Podcast’s episode on sports (available via the RSS feed, if you just click on it…), Sam Mulberry of Bethel University and CWC: The Radio Show emailed…
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…
The Witness and the Writer: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 18 April 2010
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 18 April 2009 (Third Sunday of Easter, Year C) Acts 9:1-6, (7-20) •Psalm 30 •Revelation 5:11-14 •John 21:1-19 I’ve been asked to preach not this…