...the real artist, for both O’Connor and Ference, is one who sees and expresses gratitude for what is already there, and deals with it in such a way as to reveal aspects of it that may not be visible at first glance. | Continue reading
We cannot give into the temptation of thinking that our times are so different that basic civility must be cast aside. Once we have done that, we are lost. | Continue reading
As the sun rises over the Nile or my daughter’s grave, it occurs to me that the ancient Egyptians may have been onto something. Jess lives on, her soul soars to heaven, yet she returns each day, as close as a whispered web or a patient beetle on my boots. | Continue reading
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Donald Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate has put “postliberalism” back in the news, assuming it had ever left. Vance’s embrace of postliberalism and the Trumpist cause of “national conservatism” will no doubt con … | Continue reading
Plant biology seems to be revolutionizing our understanding of what a plant is and can be. This is a gift that may help us grow in wisdom, in reverence, and in care for our world. | Continue reading
The way of the puzzler is not about reaching a certain goal. If it were, the perfectly fine image would never have been broken up to begin with. The way of the puzzler is about the puzzling itself. | Continue reading
Modern physicians use Hans Berger’s invention to save lives every day | Continue reading
People often cannot always bridge differing intellectual and political positions, even with people they agree with about most intellectual questions and political issues. | Continue reading
As C.S. Lewis noted in The Abolition of Man, the souls of our youth are not jungles that need pruning but deserts that need irrigation. We could start by getting them to hear music. | Continue reading
Our participation streak brought forward more diversity of opinion and expression in the classroom while forming the students into a team with a shared objective. | Continue reading
To counter dogmatic worldviews, we should read prudently and widely across time periods and cultures and not avoid difficult content because of fear. | Continue reading
A Non-Believer Ponders Life, Death, and Staring into the Abyss | Continue reading
Can the rest of us afford such inaction? Yes—and that’s the point. For the travesty of modernity is its constant demand—from left or right—for action, control, and efficiency. But the first step into an agrarian attitude is to step back from such demands. | Continue reading
Your presence is needed. Hush. Stay. Show your love by letting them grieve. | Continue reading
But I reckon that eÞanðun can mix with Beowulf and Paradise Lost and not feel out of place. | Continue reading
The Chicago Manual of Style is not to blame for any of these trends. The editors’ decision does not shape as much as reflect our culture. | Continue reading
I found it to be profound and moving, the work of an author who is not lost in flights of fancy but who is deeply receptive to the world and its God. | Continue reading
Behind this type of play, though, is a genuine longing for beauty—a desire not only to appreciate the beautiful things one has seen or read or heard, but also to attempt to replicate them somehow. | Continue reading
Yet at times, if only for a moment, I feel the shadow over my days is transformed into pure spirit. Such thoughts give me a surprising sense of quiet joy. | Continue reading
This rural mountain church continues to be good because it continues to do what is necessary. | Continue reading
—it took 40 years for me to begin to realize these words Jim silently put into my hands on that last day of class were a prayer. | Continue reading
Knowing your family’s past fugitives and pretty boys is the kind of localism anyone can aspire toward and practice. | Continue reading
With a clear sky above us, no one restricting our movements, we learned—sometimes flailingly, like chickens with our heads cut off—how to marvel. | Continue reading
I suppose when it comes to discussions of the English language, I prefer sterner stuff. | Continue reading
If you understand that a child’s growth comes from a spark within, just as does the growth of a flower, a crystal, or a mighty oak, you might take a more trusting view of a child’s growth. | Continue reading
There ought not be unnecessary opposition between Indigenous and Christian perspectives. The creative work of caring for our ecology is hard enough; let us not also misunderstand one another. | Continue reading
I’ll be logging off the internet for a few weeks and thus pausing these Water Dippers. I aim to resume them in early August. “What Pope Francis and Ivan Illich Prioritize in Common: Anti-clericialism, the Global South and the Cry of the Poor.” Elias Crim surveys the growing inter … | Continue reading
AI promises free cheese, but there is no such thing as a free lunch. Although we often boast about AI’s ability to create, we should instead focus the conversation on the kind of society AI produces. | Continue reading
Perhaps Pippin is right, but none of the friends call Fredegar Fatty anymore, and those chaps know something about heroics. | Continue reading
Here, on a little patch of field in a North Texas suburb, I found life being played out in simple but significant ways. | Continue reading
Wallie is gone; no visible scar remains. Mourning provides no lesson, no answers, no closure. The poet is not decrying grief for its lack of utility. | Continue reading
“Ideas and Historical Consequences.” Mars Hill Audio released the full version of an old interview with John Lucaks. FPR readers can up for a free FPR affiliate membership at Mars Hill Audio. “Dreamers and Plagiarists.” Jacob Howland draws on Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Fyodo … | Continue reading
In this way, “idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; quite the contrary, it is a truly divine way of life so long as one is not bored.” | Continue reading
Her heart is for those little ones, that they might come to know The One who became a child for our salvation and for the glory of God. | Continue reading
And this progression from the raw, unabated natural Florida to the ever-more artificial Florida, has grave consequences for both the geographical locale and the people who inhabit it. | Continue reading
God is perverted in our minds from a giver into an imminent enemy. He becomes the all-knowing one who alone reads our hearts’ desires and who alone, in His power, can prevent their satisfaction. | Continue reading
This driving principle of love and human flourishing, rooted in the Christian understanding of humanity being made in the image of God, has spurred the great social and political reform movements in American history like abolitionism and civil rights. | Continue reading
“Computers Can’t Do Math.” David Schaengold has a clear and provocative essay on the differences between computer “thinking” and human thinking: “we can be sure there are world states beyond the comprehension of any AI. And I suspect those world states will not necessarily be one … | Continue reading
Men often reflect on their relationship with their fathers during these coincidences of milestones; a similar thing often happens when a son reaches the age his father was when the son was born. | Continue reading
The healthy sorrow of our most melancholy president | Continue reading
As is clear to see, Business Insider's portrayal of 3D printing as a panacea for America's housing crisis falls short upon closer examination. | Continue reading
Only in Israel, I think in retrospect, would twelve-year-olds be this intimately familiar with the history of the Holocaust, the violence and suffering of oppression in the Warsaw Ghetto, and the horrifying events of the uprising and the final destruction of the ghetto. | Continue reading
Do we love the soil and the creatures put in our stead, or do we prefer the images our devices project at us? While the choice is not always so cut and dry, Mannon’s book can help us begin to retool our imaginations and ennoble common labor again. | Continue reading
“The Cultural Roots of Our Demographic Ennui.” Patrick Brown argues that affluence—what regular FPR contributor John de Graaf labeled “affluenza”—lies behind many of our cultural ills: “A world of creature comforts is not one that demands sacrifice. And with greater wealth comes … | Continue reading
Eloquent and nuanced, never pompous, The Rector’s Daughter sets before us the inexhaustible mystery of persons and the ways they manage to live together. | Continue reading
Rather than empowering us to live in humble confidence in relationship with others and our maker, AI offers us a choice similar to that which confronted Esau. | Continue reading
Rosen contends that we have lost touch with a classical understanding of happiness, in part because of a shift of cultural emphasis from “being good to feeling good.” Fortunately, social and behavioral psycho | Continue reading
We’re not crazy — and we’re not alone | Continue reading