If we want to talk about the immortality of the soul, we are immediately confronted with all kinds of problems. For instance, we not only have to decide whether the soul dies, but what death is, that is if we want to rationally examine this question! But further, we already have put the question problematically. … Continue reading Speaking, Not Easy: On Immortality
In a little house in the suburbs of Chicago, a young married couple were enjoying dinner with a rather robust middle-aged woman. Their three children and a visiting relative sat at table quietly listening to the conversation. “Jane, this is the woman I told you about, the one who saved our lives from that awful … Continue reading The Awkward Dinner: A Modern Ethical Allegory
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). This is a difficult verse. If we read it as a proclamation of tit-for-tat justice on earth, or even with the expectation that we can always discern the purposes … Continue reading All Things Work Together for Good?
The Heavens declare the glory of God and the skies showeth his handiwork (Psalm 19:1) When we step outside the walls of a school, when we walk about in a park, when we look up at the sky, as we are about to, we observe. We take in and experience the world. And we all … Continue reading An Address on the Eclipse to the Christian Student
I have several times referred to Sara Groves work as a model of Christian art. Today I have in mind her song Twice as Good. In it she contemplates the unique power of the Gospel: with my good news your dancing on the table babies born I am not sure I can say much without … Continue reading Where do Babies come From? Joy!
It never fails, if a boy should love a girl that he loses some sleep in the bargain. It never fails, when a young women first be a mother, that she be stricken now and again with fear and doubt, and sometime wonder many nights whether the child still breathes and should check on her. … Continue reading It Never Fails
—πολλαὶ μορφαὶ τῶν δαιμονίων, πολλὰ δ᾽ ἀέλπτως κραίνουσι θεοί: καὶ τὰ δοκηθέντ᾽ οὐκ ἐτελέσθη, τῶν δ᾽ ἀδοκήτων πόρον ηὗρε θεός. τοιόνδ᾽ ἀπέβη τόδε πρᾶγμα.— Euripides, Alcestis, 1160 Many shapes belong to the divine, and many things beyond hope do the gods accomplish: The very things we have expected are not accomplished, but for the unexpected God finds a way. … Continue reading The Concluding Chorus of Alcestis
Image of Highgate Cemetery from Twins that Travel And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many (Matthew 27:52-53). When the Son of God died and entered death, it was as if … Continue reading And the Graves were Opened
In Brothers Karamazov, Father Zosima recounts being moved in his youth by the story of Job. I have entered in italics some commentary of my own: In the land of Uz, there lived a man, righteous and God-fearing, and he had great wealth, so many camels, so many sheep and asses, and his children feasted, … Continue reading Hast thou Seen my Servant? On the Lost Children of Job
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (epigraph of Brothers Karamazov from John 12:24)ˆ Early in Brothers Karamazov, we meet a mother who has journeyed a long way to visit Zosima, a monk of wisdom and holiness. … Continue reading The Iconography of Sorrow in a Brothers Karamazov
Same & Other 