The humanities must always be a twofold work. They must simultaneously inform and enrich, but then their lessons must be applied and joyously lived out. That is the life worth living. And such a life can be found as much in the home as in the common room.
firstthings.com/web-exclusives…

In which Tolkien informs my understanding (and teaching) of Shakespeare's 'green world' comedies...

voegelinview.com/fairy-stories-…

Spring in the city reminds me repeatedly of Hopkins' poem 'God's Grandeur.' Spring here is evidence that God's beauty yet shines despite the ugliness of modern urbanism:

'And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things...'

At the end of my time at GCC, Jeffrey Bilbro and I worked on a paper about a 'book about Heaven,' Berry's Jayber Crow. I'd like to think that our paper, too - in its twists through Dante, Berry, even Eliot and the apostle John - is, in a way, about Heaven.
muse.jhu.edu/article/925057

Thanks to a Grove City College research grant last summer, Sarah Reardon and I were able to co-author an essay on Jayber Crow and Dante's Divine Comedy. Now it's out: muse.jhu.edu/article/925057

It seems to me that GOP victory is not worth the life of any unborn baby. Compromising on abortion in order to 'win' is a pragmatist, not conservative, move and those who support such a stance are likewise pragmatists.

Worth reading on IVF, birth control, and fertility:
'Many evangelicals have embraced the concept of planned parenthood—the belief that I get to be a parent (or not) on my terms.'
firstthings.com/web-exclusives…

The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—

Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

TS Eliot, East Coaker

Why should we still teach cursive? Sarah Reardon reflects on the good and the beautiful in cursive and what learning cursive and teach and communicate to students and to our society.
voegelinview.com/the-good-the-b…

How does one build a true culture of worship? Sarah Reardon reflects on the importance of child-like awe, humility, and joy.
voegelinview.com/becoming-as-a-…

This is a good question, and one which many Christians today need to ask but instead neglect to their detriment. 1 Corinthians 1 suggests that we either embrace the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of God (which is folly to the world). There is no middle ground.

Are we trained to be grateful for our heritage, for our families, for our places? As Xenophon knew, gratitude gives way to fidelity. But as we see too often today, a pedagogy of ingratitude gives way to apathy.

'To be free is precisely the same thing as to be pious, wise, just, and temperate, careful of one's own, abstinent from what is another's, and thence, in fine, magnanimous and brave.' John Milton

'We are frail and needy. We are dependent creatures who still sin, and no withdrawal from the world will rid us of our natural frailty.'

Sarah Reardon Plough Quarterly
buff.ly/3SpUFU6

In Plough Quarterly today considering how to avoid Christian 'bubbles.'

Thankful to the Plough editors for their help, and for their hospitality in inviting me to visit the Bruderhof, where I learned much about Christian community several summers ago!

plough.com/en/topics/comm…

“We can avoid Christian bubbles, then, not only by retaining a sense of our purpose as lights to the world but also by retaining a sense of our own lingering darkness apart from the grace of Christ.” Sarah Reardon

plough.com/en/topics/comm…

Rossetti’s eyes of hope are especially encouraging to me, as a teacher. Much of the work of training up children in the way they should go is the work of patience and hope. Sarah Reardon on hope, teaching, and learning between Christmas & Lent.
voegelinview.com/fear-not-it-is…

The Eastern kings who traveled far and denied Herod to bow before a baby recognized Jesus as the true King, whose reign upends all earthly allegiances and powers. | Sarah Reardon
firstthings.com/web-exclusives…

'Christ’s early worshippers exemplify the action to which God calls all his worshippers: Bowing down, worshipping, offering him their gifts, dying to themselves and their kingdoms for the sake of his kingdom.'

My latest for First Things
firstthings.com/web-exclusives…

How can Christian schools help save the true meaning of Christmas? Sarah Reardon has some thoughts as someone who teaches at a Christian school. Josef Pieper, leisure, and acts of kindness and care for students goes a long way.
voegelinview.com/how-christian-…