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As I read Tara Isabella Burton’s fascinating new book, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, I could not help but think of the 19th century. Burton’s thesis is that religion is not on the decline—we are not in a secular age—it is simply taking on some new, and it must be said, very […]
For nearly three decades, Camille Paglia, Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, has been one of America’s most controversial and consistent public intellectuals. Her writings have covered topics ranging from Aeschylus to Madonna; from Baroque art to liberal Presbyterian attitudes to human sexuality. A truly independent thinker, […]
As detailed in Part I of this series, Olympia Morata (c. 1526–1555) grew up in Ferrara, Italy, in the court of Protestant sympathizer Renèe de France, where she became proficient in Greek and Latin classics alongside Renèe’s daughter, Anna. After Anna’s marriage and Olympia’s subsequent estrangement from court, Olympia found joy in her marriage to […]
“Given the right conditions, any society can turn against a democracy. Indeed, if history is anything to go by, all of our societies eventually will.” Anne Applebaum As with many people, the 2016 election proved extremely divisive among my family and friends. My Boomer, upper-middle-class white parents, who were living their best Gordon Gekko life in […]
When the hero’s identity has been established and he has overcome reluctance to accept his responsibilities, he enters into the dangerous temptations of pride. In the opening voice over of Spider-Man 3 we hear, “It’s me. Peter Parker. Your friendly neighborhood… you know. I’ve come a long way from being the boy who was bit […]
When one surveys the broad landscape of Christianity today, confessional Lutheran and Reformed Christians share significant doctrinal acreage. This is something to celebrate and leverage amidst challenges in the broader Christian Church and society at large. Yet once the theologian’s shovel starts excavating below the surface, significant divergence at key points is found, revealing chasms […]
In 1981, when Ronald Reagan became president of the United States, Christians had an easy time identifying as political conservatives. After all, Reagan checked all the boxes of movement conservatives while showing friendliness to families and churches. He was firmly anti-Communist, a proponent of limited government and reduced spending (except for the Pentagon), and surprisingly […]
“For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” Matthew 21:32 It is sometimes easy to miss the surgical precision in the words of […]
In the previous post, we considered Spider-Man as a type of liturgical hero, who learns the meaning of the proverbial words which guide him into his heroic actions. Because it is an origin story, the original Spider-Man is a relatively complete hero’s journey, which is part of what made it appealing to consider in terms […]
First Witch: Where hast thou been, Sister? Second Witch: Killing Swine Shakespeare, Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 3) One of the pleasures of my day job is reading older texts with young people. In my course on the Old Testament, we quickly bump into questions related to how we ought to interpret the Bible in light […]
The concept of the hero’s journey posits that a successful story maps its events over key psychological experiences necessary to formation of identity. In formal worship, the structure of the liturgy maps different aspects of communal and personal spiritual identity around the teachings of Christ and the significance of His life. The liturgy is thus […]
In 1643, Princess Elisabeth of the Palatinate asked the philosopher René Descartes for some explanations about his theories on the distinction about the body and the mind – the same mind he had made the starting point for the confirmation of all knowledge in his Cogito ergo sum argument (“I think, therefore I am”). Elisabeth, […]
