{If you missed it you can read Part One here, read Part Two here, and read Part Three here.} The dead man was nameless. From antiquity to modernity, a person’s name has typically been symbolic of his or her identity. For example, Solomon, the name of the King of Israel who famously wrote, there is a time to […]
A Lesson From a Tombstone: Part Three
{If you missed it you can read Part One here, and you can read Part Two here.} Finally, the more serious questions—the human questions—made their way up the levee and displaced the silty ones, distilling truths in my mind like the clear waters of Lake Tahoe. Who was this unknown man? Was he a prospector, a cowboy, or […]
A Lesson From a Tombstone: Part Two
{If you missed it you can read Part One here.} Wandering among the dated memorials trying to decipher the stories of shades who walked the dusty streets a hundred years before, we came across the most unusual and intriguing tombstone. In one sense, it was very much like the others around it. It was made of […]
A Lesson From a Tombstone: Part One
Midway along our journey from Las Vegas to Reno, my family and I wandered off the highway into a savage and stubborn wilderness to find a rest stop to let the kids take care of business. What we discovered though was a strange piece of history that compelled us to explore and photograph an old […]
What Constitutes Meaningful Art?
The philosopher and theologian, Francis Schaeffer, once said, Unlike modern man, the men of the day did not live in a splintered world. Art was an intimate part of life. What is represented had more than an aesthetic value divorced from considerations of truth and religious significance. Schaeffer reminds us that art reflects a particular […]
Two Tips You Can Use Today for Better Reading Comprehension
Some readers are naturally better than others. To be on the bottom end of that spectrum is to be disadvantaged in many respects. After all, as the saying goes: readers are leaders. So what makes the difference? How does one move up the spectrum and improve his or her reading comprehension? In his classic work, […]
The Inevitable Ride : : a short story
The last thing to enter Gunner Thompson’s mind was how unexpectedly fast the ground rose up to meet him. It was the middle of June and the Nevada air seemed hot as hell. A few hours earlier, the thirty-year-old hedge fund manager had entered the cool lobby of the Stratosphere, made a bee-line across the casino […]
Why We Procrastinate
There’s a Chinese Proverb you’re probably familiar with. It says the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago… The second best time is today. A tree we planted twenty years ago would be mature and mostly maintenance free. Had we done the work of planting then, we could be relaxing in its shade and indulging […]
Saturday School: Lesson #12 – Copiousness
Lesson #12 – Copiousness Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Successful speakers and writers know that if they hope to persuade on a given topic, win a legal argument, or move a person to action, in addition to arguing a […]
Saturday School: Lesson #11 – Putting It All Together
Lesson #11 – Putting It All Together Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Before moving on, let’s review all that we’ve learned and put it into practice. Writing is rhetoric, and rhetoric rightly understood is the principled process of crafting […]
On the Profit of Pagan Literature
One of the ongoing questions often asked–and it’s one that is frequently addressed in ancient Christian literature–is why Christians should incorporate ancient pagan literature in their own education and literature. In other words, “What does Jerusalem have to do with Athens?” Basil the Great, in a work titled, To Young Men, on How They Might Derive Profit from […]
Saturday School: Lesson #10 – Analysis and Synthesis
Lesson #10 – Analysis and Synthesis Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Review In the last lesson, we discussed the five topics of invention most useful in developing arguments for our thesis: What is the definition of X? What are its characteristics, both […]
Saturday School: Lesson #9 – Supporting your Thesis, Part V (Invention)
Lesson #9 – Supporting your Thesis, Part V (Invention) Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Review In the last couple of lessons, we have learned that a deductive argument uses syllogistic logic to make a point that supports your thesis, and an […]
That ‘Inconceivable’ Liberal Arts Education
In William Goldman’s, The Princess Bride, Vizzini gets into the habit of saying, “Inconceivable!” To which Inigo Montoya eventually objects and says, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Such is often the case when folks in modernity use the expression, “liberal arts education.” The frequency […]
Saturday School: Lesson #8 – Supporting your Thesis, Part IV (Induction)
Lesson #8 – Supporting your Thesis, Part IV (Induction) Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Review Last week we learned how syllogisms work. They are the framework of a deductive argument. We learned there are three kinds of syllogisms writers need to […]
Saturday School: Lesson #7 – Supporting your Thesis, Part III (Syllogisms)
Lesson #7 – Supporting your Thesis, Part III (Syllogisms) Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Review Last week we discussed how the ideas a writer develops to support a paper’s thesis can be classified into two main categories: logic and topics of invention. We addressed the first, […]
Should Christians Drink Alcohol?
I first thought of titling this article “Why I Can Drink Beer, but You Can’t!” But in the spirit of charity, I figured a title that could be perceived as click-bait might be too provocative and would push some over the edge who were already teetering on the brink of emotional frustration about an issue they might not truly […]
On Reading Wisdom (Hokma) Literature
The Hebrew Scriptures are divided into three major sections: Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Categorized under Writings are the wisdom books, also referred to as Hokma literature because of their extensive use of the various forms of the Hebrew root, hkm, meaning wisdom. Wisdom literature varies within the Judeo-Christian traditions, but among them five books share […]
Saturday School: Lesson #6 – Supporting Your Thesis, Part 2 (Logic)
Lesson #6 – Supporting Your Thesis Statement, Part 2 (Logic) Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Review Last week we discussed the fact that a writer must have real and reasoned arguments to support his thesis. The way this is accomplished is by […]
Saturday School: Lesson #5 – Supporting Your Thesis, Part 1 (Definition)
Lesson #5 – Supporting Your Thesis Statement I (Definition) Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading One last reminder, in case you’re just joining us: we are focusing on the persuasive essay because good writing must have a compelling message. Later, we will discuss other genres, […]
Crumbs From Our Master’s Table: A Primer
Summer is almost over, and Fall is just around the corner. It’s a time of the year, a lot like the New Year, when folks tend to reboot and get serious about their schedules and personal disciplines again. For example, school is starting back, so parents are shopping for school clothes, enrolling the kids in a new school (or purchasing […]
Saturday School: Lesson #4 – The Thesis Statement
Lesson #4 – The Thesis Statement Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading As I explained last week, we will be focusing on the persuasive essay to start. This is because of what we have learned about writing: if it’s good, it will […]
Saturday School: Lesson #3 – Elements of Contingency
Lesson #3 – Elements of Contingency Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Last week we learned good writing doesn’t just tell the facts, it makes an assertion. In other words, all good writing has a compelling message–it argues a point. We […]
Saturday School: Lesson #2 – Elements of Composition
Lesson #2 – Elements of Composition Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Today’s lesson is extremely simple, and should only take you a few minutes. Last week we discussed the difference between sophistry and rhetoric. We learned that rhetoric rightly understood, is […]
Saturday School: Lesson #1 – Redeeming Rhetoric
Lesson #1 – Redeeming Rhetoric Complete the reading assignment Complete the writing exercise Post your assignment in the comments Share the lesson with a friend Reading Rhetoric is frequently confused with sophistry. For example, when a politician uses the emotion of the moment after a national tragedy to promote a new policy, or bends and distorts the truth in […]
Safely Navigating the Blurred Lines of Ministry and Business
For the Christian, one of the similarities between ministry and business is the work of creation—the effort to provide people with a message, product, or service that will make their lives better. Stated this way, it makes both minister and entrepreneur an artist–or poet in the strictest sense of the word. The problem is this similarity also makes […]
Video: Introduction to Old Western Culture with Roman Roads Media
For quality classical Christian curriculum and online classrooms, check out Roman Roads Media.
Write Like a Human
All ideas have consequences; and the best ones grow up to be fruitful benefactors to society. What many may not realize, however, is there is much labor and grief involved in bringing a good idea into the cold, cruel world. It starts as a thought conceived in the mind. After a while, it starts to take on […]
What You Miss By Not Reading the Literature of Old Western Culture
As a writer and Classical Christian teacher, I’m frequently asked why I think it’s important to study the classics, or what C.S. Lewis called Old Western Culture. Usually the questions go something like: What does it matter what a bunch of dead guys thought? Shouldn’t students be focused on an education that will get them […]
A Diminished Life Means Diluted Work
Some people are out of their element if they don’t have their hands in numerous projects and pursuits. I’m not one of those people. I’m one of those who too frequently puts my hands in numerous projects and pursuits, and then gets bogged down and overwhelmed. I then become unproductive and tend to get depressed. For […]
Value Creation Starts with Better Reading
One challenge that often plagues writers is a natural default to express only personal interests. Quite often, writers write because there is something in their percolator they want to get out into the world. Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. But, if writers are not careful, what they create will not be relevant […]
Five Valid Reasons to Start Writing (Blogging)
According to worldometers.com, when I wrote this blog post, there had already been 3.9 million posts published that same day. Wouldn’t it seem superfluous to add another post to the already congested blogosphere? It’s a valid question, I suppose. So here is where I offer five valid reasons for writing (specifically starting a blog)—or why you shouldn’t give it […]
Don’t Be That Guy at the Party
Everyone is a writer these days. In our postmodern world, you can be anything you want. Some people think that means literally anything—like the lizard-man, the human Barbie, or the 52-year-old man who identifies as a six-year-old girl. Can you say, creepy, boys and girls? In the postmodern world, you don’t have to wait for someone […]
Now and Later: A Quick Word on YOLO
Aristotle believed poetry was a more philosophical and higher art than history because poetry expresses the universal. Poetry is a picture of man’s imagination, what he is capable of. History on the other hand expressed the particular. It is simply an account of what had actually happened. While I think Aristotle makes a valid point, human […]
What Can You Do With 15 Minutes?
Time management is overrated. Actually, time management is a misnomer. Time cannot be managed. It is a constant. It’s you and I that need to be managed. We’ve all been given the same amount of time each day; yet, none of us know how many days “of that same amount of time each day” we […]
The Pursuit of Happiness
I’ve been working on a book that is supposed to release this fall. One of the chapters was recently published as an essay in Shield Wall, a journal of theological poetics from the community of students at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, ID. I tell you that for two reasons. First, I hope you’ll read it because […]
Why Thucydides Still Matters
Of the numerous intrigues present in The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides’ (pronounced: thoo sid id ees) use of speeches is paramount. Within the narrative he includes forty-one different speeches. What is so interesting is how Thucydides approaches the inclusion of these speeches compared to how he ascertains his information for his narrative. Of the speeches he says, […]
How’s That for Application?
Donald Trump has never taken a logic course to my knowledge; neither has Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, that I’m aware of. But I’ll get to that in a minute… The science of human reasoning is called logic, and likely no other has contributed more immensely to the field than Aristotle, whose science of syllogistic reasoning […]
Classical Christian Education
During the 20 years I spent in pastoral ministry, I had the privilege of starting and teaching in two Christian Schools. Having a passion for teaching, naturally, that’s where I turned for employment and ministry while finishing my own education. Today, I’m privileged to be teaching Integrated Humanities and Pre-algebra at Logos Online School, based out of […]
10 Ideas for a Fruitful New Year
We’re just a couple of days away from the New Year and advice about resolutions is as bounteous as leftover Christmas fruitcake, and nearly as appetizing. Since offering such advice is as traditional as eating aforementioned fruitcake at Christmas, I didn’t see any reason why I should be the one to overturn our Abeline Paradox […]
Linus Got it Right!
Linus got it right. The meaning of Christmas is, without a doubt, the celebration of the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Godhead. But what does it really mean when Linus, reading from Luke’s gospel, says that Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus? Or, how are we to interpret the expression […]
C.S. Lewis: An Admonishing Angel for the Modern Age
Like the 49ers of the California Gold Rush, hoards of writers, educators and theologians have flocked to the Sutter’s Mill of English literature, hoping to stake a claim and strike it rich in literary ore.
Love, Exile, and ‘The Divine Comedy’
Dante wrote the Commedia in 1307 while in exile, as one who had learned “how salt is the bread of exile.” In the introduction to the part of the Commedia called “Paradiso,” he asserts the end of his project as a whole as well as in this part “is to remove those living in this […]
Finding Meaning in Literature
In chapter two of Christianity and Literature, Jeffrey and Maillet lament, “Many literary majors…graduate without any clear sense of whether literary theory enables them to find…any truth, goodness, beauty or even any meaning in literature.” Because I’m pursuing a doctorate in literary humanities, this statement resonated with me. If this sort of thing puts your […]
Book Review: Out of the Silent Planet
Out of the Silent Planet is a novella by C.S. Lewis, the first of his famed Space Trilogy. The story is centered on an Englishman named Dr. Ransom who is kidnapped and taken to another planet, he later learns is Mars, called Malacandra by the inhabitants. While on a walking holiday Dr. Ransom attempts to help […]
The Easiest Way to Keep Your Kids Out of Jail!
There is a 67% chance your child will end up in jail or on welfare if he or she is not reading proficiently by the 4th grade. That’s according to literacy statistics provided at begintoread.org. Studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, support this statistic, citing 70% of adult […]
A Personal Update – 07.09.2015
A couple of years ago I took a sabbatical, in part to seek the Lord for how I should proceed in ministry. I had been wrestling through some personal issues of vision and direction. Mainly, I felt somewhat unsettled in my calling. Our family had just made a journey out of an unhealthy spiritual context, and […]
Who’s Driving this Ship Anyway?
In 1831, Alexis De Tocqueville toured the new American republic. In celebration of the greatness of the American experiment so many men and women gave their Lives, their Fortunes and their sacred Honor to secure and protect, I offer the following few of his manifold observations (and the added bonus of my very brief but poignant perspective): Among […]
For the Weekend 2015.06.26
A Weekend Reminder When the children of Israel were exiled into Babylon, the Lord told them to seek the welfare of the city until He returned to establish their dominion again: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in […]
Dirty Shoes and Scraped-up Knees
There’s a maxim that’s said to be an African Proverb: “A man who walks two roads will soon split his pants.” I can’t verify the source of the saying, but I can verify the truth of it. You cannot travel in two different directions long, maybe a step or two, before you stagnate. You have to make […]