What does it mean to lament? What does lament mean to you? At a basic level, to lament is to express sorrow or grief—usually visibly or audibly (or both), often in prayer or song or poetry. Lament can also express a deep sense of longing, which is a cousin if not a twin of grief....
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As last century wound to a close, author and scholar Tom Shippey published J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, one of the most important works in the field of Tolkien studies. In the book, Shippey argues that Tolkien’s Middle-earth writings offer “a deeply serious response to what will be seen in the end as the...
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“A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo’s heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit In the opening chapter of his 1986 book Beyond Identity—one of those titles I consider a “must read”...
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Author’s Note: This article is adapted from my recently released book Mere Evangelism: 10 Insights from C. S. Lewis to Help You Share Your Faith. My childhood house had a vestibule. It’s a seldom-used word for a seldom-seen structure. Built onto the outside of a house, it serves as a halfway stop between outside and...
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Pilgrims we are. The stories of my life are always a story of journey, of people on pilgrimage from here to there, from one place to the next. The most ancient story we know is that story, beginning in a garden and ending in a city, and the best stories are one more version of...
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“Beyond the door, there’s peace, I’m sure And I know there’ll be no more tears in heaven” There are mysteries in this life, questions with answers that are hard to come by, difficult to make sense of, perplexing to live with. The meaning of heaven, and the meaning of earth, are like that. What are...
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