Joe Carter

In the latest issue of Dappled Things , Robert T. Miller reflects on what the Iliad can teach today’s youth : In even considering the possibility, therefore, that the life of quiet enjoyment with family might be best, Achilleus is suggesting a radically new understanding of the good life, an . . . . Continue Reading »

Last year you gave your favorite ROFTER a gift subscription to First Things . But what can you give them this year? How about a book by a contributor to  First Things . Over the next few days I’ll be highlighting works by our editors, bloggers, frequent writers, and editorial board . . . . Continue Reading »

Would you rather live in medieval England or modern day Afghanistan? Before you answer, you might want to consider that you’d likely have a better standard of living under Henry VIII than of Hamid Karzai: New research led by economists at the University of Warwick reveals that medieval . . . . Continue Reading »

1. An Irrational Guide to Gifts Imagine that you are walking by a storefront and you notice a beautiful coat that is just the right cut and color. You walk in to check it out, and up close it is even more beautiful. But then, you look at the price tag and you discover that it is about twice as . . . . Continue Reading »

Earlier this week, an Ivy League political science professor was arrested and charged with one count of incest for having a reportedly consensual sexual relationship with his twenty-four year old daughter. Normally, I’d find such a story too sordid and tabloid-esque to be worth commenting on. . . . . Continue Reading »

Okay, forget that Chaucer versus Shakespeare stuff. Matt Anderson pointed me to an article that reveals our greatest word-maker to be none other than John Milton : According to Gavin Alexander, lecturer in English at Cambridge university and fellow of Milton’s alma mater, Christ’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Vatican City has been crowned the ‘Greenest State In the World’ by . . .  the Vatican newspaper. According to design blog Inhabitat : Last year Inhabitat reported that the Vatican was spending $660 million on a massive 100MW photovoltaic installation that would effectively be . . . . Continue Reading »

In his new book All in a Word , linguist Vivian Cook lists all the words that the literary titans Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare “invented”—or at least had the first recorded use. Who do you think was the master neologist? Shakespeare or Chaucer? Flavorwire compiled a . . . . Continue Reading »

Craig Carter defends the lecture , the “paradigmatic act of the university professor in the (originally) Western (but now Global) university in the modern age”: [W]hat kind of event is the lecture? I say it is a moral event first because it is a kind of profession of faith, which is why . . . . Continue Reading »

Theologian R.C. Sproul explains why there’s nothing nefarious about the X in Xmas : The simple answer to your question is that the X in Christmas is used like the R in R.C. My given name at birth was Robert Charles, although before I was even taken home from the hospital my parents called me . . . . Continue Reading »