“Does ‘image of God’ make us lazy?” I jotted this in my notebook earlier this week, between phrases like “hinge point in history” and “geophysical tipping point.” I was listening to a lecture by Kathleen Dean Moore, a moral philosopher,…

We visited Stratford-upon-Avon, of course, toured Shakespeare's house and watched the Royal Shakespeare Company perform Julius Caesar in the Royal Shakespearean Theater. I vaguely remember the grave of Jane Austin, but, twenty years after our visit, Piccadilly Circus is gone completely from…

Twenty-two years ago on a sunny day in Indiana at First United Methodist Church, my daughter was baptized. It was a beautiful liturgy, where a candle was lit at the moment of baptism, as the pastor said, “I baptize you…

By happy providence, this week's warm-up (I mean, who needs a coat when it's all the way up to 42!) coincided with one of my favorite sections in my British literature survey course: our study of the Victorian poet-priest Gerard…

Wherever I go in RCA (Reformed Church in America) circles these days, I get this question: “How’s it going with the 2020 Vision Team?” Some are genuinely curious. Others more cynical. Many are highly anxious. The follow-up question is often,…

More than once over the last few weeks I’ve been asked if I “believe the bible”. What they mean, I think, is whether I believe the bible is the true word of God. Of course my answer is yes, but…