The Book of Judges and American Life

In the middle of the main section of the book of Judges is the famous story of Gideon who defeated the Midianites with 300 soldiers. The layers of wisdom contained in this story call for repeated readings, but right now I want to focus on the aftermath to Gideon’s triumph.
What happens, in a word, is [...]

Stalin’s Russia Remembered

This review of The Whisperers keeps alive the memory that Putin seems to want silenced. But just as we cannot forget what neo-paganism achieved through Hitler’s Holocaust, so we cannot forget what atheism achieved through Stalin’s savagery. We must not forget that we also can kill and be killed. These were human beings at both [...]

Science and religion

I hold to the humble view that the natural sciences are in trouble and that they will build a very high tower over the next 100 or so years before they discover that it has no foundation. The following quotations offer clues as to why I believe this.
A.N. Whitehead, co-author with Bertrand Russell of Principia [...]

How much we owe the Greeks

According to this astonishing article, it’s even more than we thought. Hospitals, art, grammar, Homer, math theory, and now we discover we’ve only just caught up to Archimedes!
What an astonishing people.
For seventy years, a prayer book moldered in the closet of a family in France, passed down from one generation to the next. Its mildewed parchment [...]

ISI and the Great Tradition

Jeremy Beers over at ISI generously advanced me a review copy of The Great Tradition. Now they have generously quoted my response on their web site. Take a look - especially at the book!
Warning! The contents of this link will change every month or so.

Time for Liberty?

“The relationship between a liberal education and freedom is good sound American doctrine. … I regret that during the last several decades we have had a tendency to overlook this important American fact. And I think we are paying the penalty for our shortsightedness in unexpected ways.”
Thus Wendell Wilkie, in a 1943 speech at Duke [...]

what about the witchcraft in Harry Potter

This is the basic dilemma Christians have with the series. Both classical mythology and the Bible provide plenty of reasons to be concerned. The great witch of classical mythology is Medea, and it would be hard to find a less desirable character in life or myth. She devotes her life to avenging herself on Jason [...]