Category: From the Faculty

From the Faculty, ISSUE #43 | DEC 2023

Priesthood as Craft, Not Science

I remember reading an essay by a fellow ex-seminarian critiquing our former institution and its late rector for alleged failures to provide adequate emotional support to young men, for its rigid notions of masculinity, and other such micro-aggression. Coming from a center-left place, his article only differed in details, but not in essence, from the right-wing critiques of seminaries as dens of sodomy yielding the … Continue reading Priesthood as Craft, Not Science

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From the Faculty, ISSUE #39 | DEC 2022

Made in Our Image?: Straight (Theological) Talk About Transhumanism

Prior to my arrival at Hillsdale College this fall, I had designed and offered several times a new course on a trendy topic: transhumanism. It was something of a devil’s bargain. While I had come to believe that all young men and women ought to know something about this movement, I was also looking to design a topical course that would be popular. For mainstream … Continue reading Made in Our Image?: Straight (Theological) Talk About Transhumanism

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From the Faculty, ISSUE #30 | OCT 2020

To Conquer a Virus and Unweave a Rainbow

When the recent coronavirus shut-in hit, and the Michigan governor’s stay-at-home order forced its way through my phone by emergency text message, I took one last fleeting look at my campus office bookshelf for any last-minute tome I might bring with me as I escaped to the safety of my country estate. For a moment that old copy of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy looked like … Continue reading To Conquer a Virus and Unweave a Rainbow

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From the Faculty, ISSUE #28 | MAR 2020

Things Below: Thoughts on the World and Literature, Part Two of Two

Continued from last issue. O’Connor’s sense of the fantastic nature and Rev. Ames’ wonder at the lovely particularity of creation are, in my experience, unusual among Christians. In fact, it’s rare among people anywhere, no matter their religious perspective. This general inattentiveness to nature’s quiet glories draws the attention of Emerson, for instance, in his book Nature, where, regarding the stars, he writes, “Seen in … Continue reading Things Below: Thoughts on the World and Literature, Part Two of Two

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From the Faculty, ISSUE #27 | DEC 2019

Things Below: Thoughts on the World and Literature, Part One of Two

When on July 15, 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School, he didn’t open his remarks as one would expect, by quoting a passage of scripture.  The young men to whom he spoke were, after all, seminarians who had spent their time at Harvard studying the Bible and preparing for a career in the ministry.  We’d assume that the speaker … Continue reading Things Below: Thoughts on the World and Literature, Part One of Two

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From the Faculty, ISSUE #23 | DEC 2018

Caroling with Scrooge

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Come December (or November, or October—there’s no accounting for taste), when our townspeople begin to erect, not only trees and lights, but monstrous, inflatable snow globes; when entire radio stations change over to non-stop holiday music, oppressive with a surfeit of sleigh bells; when our august retail institutions flood the market with plastic consumer goods designed to … Continue reading Caroling with Scrooge

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From the Faculty

Splendor without Spectacle

  Some wry reflection in the current style on how the wonder of the eclipse seemed rather darkened by the contraceptive glasses that my eye doctor insisted must be worn to keep my sight, partially was obscured by clouds blowing in at the totality and contemplated by naked eyes, an unexpected splendor needing no interposition.     Benjamin Beier is an Assistant Professor of Education.   Continue reading Splendor without Spectacle

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