Gene Fant

This list caught my eye: the “Most Brilliant Christian Professors.”  Their institutional affiliations and specialties are all over the map, which is interesting in its own way, and it reminded me of a conversation I once had in graduate school.One of my professors took me to the side after . . . . Continue Reading »

In a few weeks I will start reading through the student evaluations of the faculty members I supervise.  My favorite part of this task is scanning the written comments for the kinds of nuggets that only students can produce.  Perhaps my all-time favorite came to my attention . . . . Continue Reading »

A few years ago, on my 40th birthday, I spent the day walking silently with my family through the gates of the Nazi work camp at Flossenburg, Germany, wandering among the monuments to the dead.The camp is almost empty of structures, though a few chapels dot the grounds; its gravel quarry has been . . . . Continue Reading »

I heard this song recently:  “Why” by Nichole Nordeman.  I love much of Nordeman’s music (the tone of her voice is just so fragile and honest) and the song certainly is moving.  As I once heard songwriter Babyface Edmonds term it, it’s . . . . Continue Reading »

My home state of Mississippi breeds storytellers like Washington DC breeds scoundrels.  We lost a giant yesterday, Barry Hannah (1942 - 2010).  I met him a few times, once when I lived next door to his son and Barry rang my door bell by mistake (our apartments were . . . . Continue Reading »

By now you may have heard about the Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko who has been sulking because he lost the gold medal to American Evan Lysacek.  Plushenko has taken a fairly audacious strategy to elevating his claim to superiority: his website apparently announced that he has . . . . Continue Reading »

The final chapter of James W. Sire’s delightful Naming the Elephant (IVP  2004) surveys the overlapping of worldview analysis and academic disciplines.  When he arrives at literature, which is, in many ways, his own first love, Sire observes: “In the past several decades, . . . . Continue Reading »

Since my family is filled with NASA wogs, I keep half an eye peeled for news from the space program. This week the big news was the installation of an observation window on the International Space Station. This seven-paned, chunky  bubble will allow astronauts an amazing view of the cosmos when . . . . Continue Reading »

I recently made a post about reading 1984  and suggested watching the 1984 adaptation starring John Hurt.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen the full release (i.e., unedited), having seen it recently on a cable network that edits for content; this means that I forgot . . . . Continue Reading »

Lots of folks are talking about the current Vanity Fair story on the Creation Museum in KY.  I’ll let someone else start a chat about the story in particular or the museum (follow the Scott Lamb link below for one such discussion); I wish to deal with something more general and . . . . Continue Reading »