I am in Morocco right now, and this is my first trip to Africa. Well, technically that’s not totally true—in the year 2000, I climbed Mt. Sinai as part of a tour to Israel, so I was in a corner of Egypt for a day. But I think that the Sinai Peninsula hardly counts as having been to Africa, properly speaking; so really, this feels like my first time in Africa. I’m doing...
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Featured Essay
Oxford D.Phil. graduates sitting in the Sheldonian Theatre--can you spot me?
Yesterday (June 13, 2009), I graduated from Oxford University with my D.Phil. (Doctor of Philosophy) degree. I had finished my degree requirements last year, but I didn’t have time to actually “walk” in my graduation ceremony until now, due to my teaching duties at Biola University. But ac...
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Monet's "Nympheas"
Paris is often known as La Ville-Lumière, “The City of Lights.” But it may just as aptly be called the “City of Arts.” Last week, I just spent five days in Paris, although I’ve been there something like a dozen times before. However, having done all the typical tourist attractions (Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur & Montmartre, Arc de ...
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I am in Spain right now, in the city of Bilbao (incidentally, if you take away a ‘B’ and rearrange the letters, you get…Biola!) which is the principal city of the Basque Country (Pais Vasco). I’ve visited Spain a number of times before, and have come to appreciate how diverse it is. Not only is there Madrid, the political and geographic heart of the country, but there...
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What is California literature? For a class about California in the great books tradition, I had to pick a half-dozen of the best books for students to read and discuss. Which raises the question, what counts as California literature?
The most helpful discussion I've read on the subject is not exactly up to date, but it's a 1955 article full of wise counsel. The article, "Cal...
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Jonathan Edwards's grave in Princeton, New Jersey
OK, I know this may seem like a morbid topic, but I love visiting cemeteries. However, I think Americans are beholden to a cultural captivity of fear of cemeteries. In the rest of the world, especially Europe, cemeteries do not evoke images of zombies or Stephen King novels. In Europe, many people are buried in churches,...
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This month, I'm leading a class of Biola students who will try to understand California. We are undertaking a theological interpretation of California with the goal of knowing how to live wisely as Christians in this territory.
There's no guaranteed right way to do this, and we only have three weeks together. But this is our plan of attack.
First, we beat a hasty retreat...
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Michael Vick tortured dogs and watched them fight for pleasure and money. This is not only against the law, but morally disturbing. Michael Vick has served jail time for his bad behavior and now is coming out.
Some people feel Vick has not been punished enough and perhaps they are correct, but the reasoning behind the anti-Vick arguments is sometimes quite disturbing. In a ...
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I moved to California fifteen years ago and fell in love with the state.
There is so much to see and do that one could easily vacation here forever without exhausting the wonders, natural and man made. One a single day, one can look at world class art at the Getty and party in Mr. Disney's park at night. Our university system makes innovation a daily affair. Students have l...
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I just went to see the movie “Angels & Demons” (released Friday, May 15, 2009) and thought it was much better than its predecessor, “The Da Vinci Code.” Not to confuse the point, but actually “Angels” was written first, it being the first of a trilogy about fictional Harvard professor Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks). “Da Vinci” is the second book, and...
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Torrey students are very bright and I am lucky enough to hear from them every day. As a new cohort heads into society, or when speaking to recent graduates about the economy, what am I hearing? What tips do they give me to share with other grads that might help to land that first job or make it in a difficult environment?
This is not meant to sound "preachy." These are gene...
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His name has to be paired with Gilbert before most people will recognize him, because he is best known as the composer of the music for those Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas like Mikado, H. M. S. Pinafore, and Pirates of Penzance. But Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (born this day, May 13, 1842; died 1900) also wrote some serious music with and without Gilbert. And among the work...
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