We are unavoidably moral beings. Perhaps from a Christian view, Western culture today appears to cast off morality or celebrate immorality, and in some cases that might be true. However, conversations with my non-Christian friends, especially as we turn to spiritual or social matters, become deeply moral. It is not that the secular person celebrates...
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Bibliotherapy. Never heard of it? Neither had I, at least by name, until browsing a lifestyle magazine a few months ago. Perhaps you are familiar with this term. For those who aren’t, PsychologyToday describes it as “facilitating psychological growth and healing through reading.” All kinds of books can be therapeutic, and counselors who use bibliotherapy...
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German churches have regathered for public worship but without singing. Why? Groups as ideologically varied as CNN and The Gospel Coalition have reported increasing anecdotal evidence that indicates singing together spreads the coronavirus quite destructively, with the case of a Washington State choir practice being one of the most noted. The National Academy of Engineering,...
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“Windows to transcendence” is the metaphor the brilliant sociologist Peter Berger offered, describing the way we see and don’t see the reality of the world around us. He argued that the Enlightenment vision of the modern world has closed those windows, believing that human beings do quite well, “enlightened” that we are as material accidents...
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“Perhaps it is more difficult than I thought before, because it is different when it’s your mother.” Twice a year I teach a course that requires the students to read carefully and critically week by week, listening and analyzing as they make their way through the world. A graduate-seminar in pedagogy, for three hours we...
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“It is winter in Narnia,” said Mr. Tumnus, “and has been for ever so long…. always winter, but never Christmas.” There are words that capture our imaginations, often from the very first time we hear them. I confess that when I read this so long ago now, I understood them— though now years later, I...
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