On April Fool’s Day, I saw headlines that Richard Dawkins, the famed British atheist and evolutionary biologist, had claimed to be a “cultural Christian.” I assumed the headlines were clickbait consistent with the day’s theme. Continue Reading...
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June 05, 2024
The Genius of Franklin
The United States’ Office of the Historian “Milestones” webpage “1776–1783: Diplomacy and the American Revolution” devotes one of its eight sections to Benjamin Franklin, “the most distinguished scientific and literary American of the colonial era” and “the first American diplomat.” Continue Reading...
June 03, 2024
Hidden in Kafka’s Castle
Should we blame Max Brod? Brod was almost certainly the nearest thing Franz Kafka ever had to a friend, and in time Kafka appointed him his literary executor. The instructions he gave were unequivocal: all the work that remained unpublished on his death, which came on June 3, 1924, including three novels and a large number of stories, was to be promptly destroyed. Continue Reading...
May 31, 2024
The Immeasurable Value of One Life
His name will never be as widely recognized as it ought to be, but Nicholas Winton is one of the authentic heroes of the last century. Born in 1909 in Hampstead, London, Winton’s parents were Jewish, but he was brought up in the Church of England. Continue Reading...
May 30, 2024
A Graves Goodbye to WWI
This year marks the 95th anniversary of the book that for many solidified the view that World War I dealt a deadly a blow to European culture: Robert Graves’ Goodbye to All That. Continue Reading...
May 29, 2024
Wildcat’s Revelation of Grace—Whether We Like It or Not
A piece of art, completed, represents a long series of choices, from the first choice that artist made to pay attention to the tugging on the edge of his mind to the final daub of paint, deleted comma, or scrape on stone. Continue Reading...
May 24, 2024
Remembering We Were Soldiers and Another America
Memorial Day was first instituted in the aftermath of the Civil War, to appease the suffering caused by the terrible bloodshed of that conflict, in which almost as many men died as in the wars of the 20th century combined. Continue Reading...
May 23, 2024
Fighting for the Church in a Time of Crisis: The Barmen Declaration
This is the 90th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration, the statement of faith issued by the “Confessing Church” of Germany, the Christians who opposed the takeover of the Protestant churches by Nazi theologians. Continue Reading...
May 22, 2024
A Christian Nationalist on Every Corner?
There are two vital questions that need to be answered in the debate around Christian nationalism. First, is it a problem? Second, how concerned should we be? The answers given by the documentary God and Country (co-produced by actor-director Rob Reiner) are “Yes” and “Very.” Continue Reading...
May 21, 2024
Bare Ruined Choir Schools
My news feed early last month included updates on an ongoing drama involving two animals, both from endangered species. Zookeepers in Fort Worth and in Cleveland breathed a sigh of relief when Jameela, a western lowland gorilla born at the Fort Worth Zoo that had been abandoned by her mother, was accepted by Freddy, a Cleveland gorilla who has successfully fostered orphaned and abandoned gorillas before. Continue Reading...
