A few years ago, when a group of students at Emory University prepared to demonstrate against a controversial speaker, I asked a senior why they wanted to do so. She had a background different from that of the typical selective school attendee, a hard-edged one, and she’d already told me that . . . . Continue Reading »
To really hear what I’m about to sayIs probably impossible apartFrom taking in the painting at its heart.From reeling, in the process, at the wayThe blood, beyond its trickling down his brow,Has gotten in his vitreum somehow. How otherwise explain the ruinousRed of his eyes? If that isn’t the . . . . Continue Reading »
Crippled by a stroke, my aunt Miriam spent the last seventeen years of her life in a succession of nursing homes. Once, she had been the skilled seamstress who for years took pride in sewing much of the female apparel in our family, and who sought out opportunities to cook and bake for all of us. . . . . Continue Reading »
The prosperity gospel—which declares that God’s grace is manifest in gold faucets, private jets, and multimillion-dollar homes—has no answer for the countless agonies of earthly life. Continue Reading »
Not even your death belongs to you. Your death belongs to Jesus, the Living One who holds the keys of Death and of Hades. Continue Reading »
One of the fascinating revelations of Uncommon Grace is how endearing and childlike O’Connor’s faith was—just as Jesus said the faith of his disciples should be. Continue Reading »
When it comes to the end of life, “moral complexity” tempts us to recast our tendency to shrink from commitment to the truth as a kind of sophistication. Continue Reading »
Last night I watched The Final Girls, Todd Strauss-Schulson's 2015 slasher parody about mourning. It's charming, touching, and mostly successful—and a great example of the reasons 2015 specifically and the '10s generally have been such great years for horror fans.2015 was just a cornucopia of . . . . Continue Reading »
Assisted-suicide advocacy is wrapped in euphemisms and false assurances. We are often told that medicalized killing will be “a last resort” reserved for the terminally ill, to be deployed only in the context of a long-term relationship with a caring doctor and, even then, strictly when there is . . . . Continue Reading »
I am glad you feel you are ‘standing still’ in your spiritual life. I should be still better pleased if you felt you were losing ground! Whatever makes for humility is so much to the good.”
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