First Things RSS Feed - Losana Boyd

Through Yoga to Christianity

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

In the early 1990s I was living a high-stress lifestyle: running a successful international business and raising three children. I had no particular religious practice to speak of, having given up Catholicism during my college years. At the same time, medical treatments for a debilitating injury had proven ineffective. One day, on my way home from physical therapy, I saw a sign advertising yoga classes. I called the number on the sign and found a teacher with whom I studied for four years.

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Giotto’s Epiphany

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Who before Giotto thought
to remove the king’s crown—
this first from the earth’s
kingdoms come to worship.

Giotto paints Him shrouded,
the swaddled solemn babe,
dressed for His burial—
getting right to the point.

And they were the best kings
could offer, these tokens
for the One who came
forgiving everything.

The mother reclines on
her side; hovering foster
father accepts the trio;
Angels watch: ox, ass, us.

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A Review of The World in the Shadow of God

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The World in the Shadow of God: An Introduction to Christian Natural Theology
by Ephraim Radner
Cascade, 169 pages, $20

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Top Ten Secular Christmas Songs

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:00:13 -0500

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Top Ten Sacred Christmas Songs

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:15:32 -0500

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Advent—Let’s Hold Back the Christmas Cheer

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:24:33 -0500

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A Poet Haunted by Brokenness

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:58:00 -0400

Brokenness haunts the pages of Kathleen Graber’s new collection of poems, The Eternal City , chosen by Paul Muldoon to re-introduce the distinguished Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets. An award-winning poet who teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University, Graber has drawn her poetic inspiration from Mark Doty, Charles Wright and Stephen Dunn, among other contemporary writers. Graber’s work focuses on illuminating the life of the mind through a tapestry of richly drawn and arresting images.

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Faith in a Time of Faithlessness

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

They are lovely, your orange slices
and peignoirs, and especially that green
cockatoo, but why, poet, limit the mind
of God to a heaven of immutable fruit?
Perhaps belief must be wooed, much as anything
we hunger for.

Granted, pursuit is a young man’s game,
but in their eagerness, boys grab
too rashly at the inviolate: so faithful,
those green boys to their fruitful
strivings, while steadfast lovers
know faith can never be
plucked or shaken from the tree.
Faithless to grandiose pursuits, they
abide in quiet passionate persuasion.

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Poetry Reading by Christian Wiman

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:46:18 -0400

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God and Dogs

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:24:33 -0400

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