Less is the new more. Marie Kondo is just the latest incarnation of a bigger trend toward living more with less. Yet minimalism is not without its critics. Some have accused it of being a luxury of the upper middle class, a subtle form of virtue-signaling akin to veganism. Others guard their beloved possessions from minimalist … Continue reading Declutter Your Soul with Christian Minimalism
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Beauty as a Gateway to Faith in Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited
Imagine two tourists standing in front of Chartres Cathedral in France. The first simply gapes in awe as everything clicks slowly into place: God, the Universe, his own life -- microcosm and macrocosm. Transported by its resplendent beauty, his experience transcends human reason. The second tourist mills about anxiously before pausing to take a selfie. … Continue reading Beauty as a Gateway to Faith in Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited
Trilobites
Ammonites and trilobites embedded in this rocky frame tell the story of a journey from obscurity to fame. As we step this mortal pathway, knowing not which way to go, birds still spiral up to heaven, with the valley spread below. Once a million creatures swimming, then upon an ocean floor, trilobites and ammonites advance … Continue reading Trilobites
Jesus, Socrates, and the Problem of Human Blindness
Our whole business in this Life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen. - St. Augustine SOCRATES: Imagine this: People live under the earth in a cavelike dwelling. Stretching a long way up toward the daylight is its entrance, toward which the entire cave is gathered. The … Continue reading Jesus, Socrates, and the Problem of Human Blindness
An Eager Hostess, Awaiting Spring
In Virginia, spring can feel like a fickle friend, whose arrival is always being delayed for reasons you suspect are not as urgent or inexorable as her letters make them seem. You forgive the aggravation, thinking ahead, surely, to the good times close at hand; in your mind, she approaches — finally! in a whirl … Continue reading An Eager Hostess, Awaiting Spring
The Poet at Sunrise
The poet emerges at sunrise: alone, as always, and without plan; when else can he perceive the way the lark’s sudden departure sends a crown of halos rippling toward the bank? His words cast common objects in an unfamiliar light, finding sacredness in the profane and humor even in darkness. “Yes,” we say, “it is just … Continue reading The Poet at Sunrise
The Case against Capitalism (and Socialism)
When teaching my tenth-grade world history students about capitalism, socialism, and communism, I start by giving them a ten-question survey of their views. This includes questions like: Free trade between countries is: a. Good, because it leads to lower prices for consumers, b. Bad, because it leads to lower wages/ less jobs for workers in … Continue reading The Case against Capitalism (and Socialism)
What Our Objections to God Say about Us
Most objections to Christianity, or to religion more broadly, are hardly unique. So, encountering this fairly typical description of six “paths to atheism” seems as good an opportunity as any to address them. I’ve come to realize that our objections to God’s existence tell us more about ourselves than about Him. Most can be boiled … Continue reading What Our Objections to God Say about Us
A Tree in Winter
Winter has come to this place and I to it am bound, finding not one last brilliant leaf believing it would never grace the ground. Traversing a cold so still, the only sound our trampling, in clumsy sacrilege, shriveled foliage that just weeks ago filtered autumn light like glass stained by the master’s hand, now … Continue reading A Tree in Winter
The Bonds of Nostalgia
“I saw something on the internet; I’m not sure if it’s true, but people were drinking milk out of plastic bags.” “Oh yeah,” I said to the teenager sitting across from me, “I remember that. Sometime around second grade, I think it was.” “Why would people do that?” he asked in astonishment. I shrugged. “Budget … Continue reading The Bonds of Nostalgia
The Front Porch Philosopher 