Glittering Vices
Author: Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoungBrazos Press
Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung explores the seven deadly sins from a historical and biblical perspective.
Chasing Emily: A Review of ‘Emily’s Ghost’
Author: Jennifer Holberg, Professor of EnglishBooks & Culture online
Emily Brontë hears dead people.
Or at least she does according to the latest entry in the Brontë family literary sweepstakes, Denise Giardina’s Emily’s Ghost. To be fair, Emily only gets all Sixth Sense-y in the beginning and ending sections of Giardina’s novel (somehow, I guess, the otherworldly presences just aren’t as convenient or necessary in the vast middle chapters of the novel). And lest the reader believe that these voices are evidence of schizophrenia or a matter of purely imaginative inner dialogue (the latter a possibility that Anne Brontë raises at one point in the novel), Giardina has her Emily affirm quite forcefully the reality of her auditory companions. What’s more, Giardina’s Emily is ardently and actively political (a Chartist, no less); strongly and nobly rebellious against everything well-established in early Victorian society; and the participant in a passionate, if unconsummated, romance. Throw in a pinch of plot elements taken from Jane Eyre and a dash of Jo March-style hair-chopping, and you begin to get the idea of the portrait of Emily Brontë this book gives us.
How does your work shape your view of human nature?
Author: Nathan L.K. Bierma, Calvin Institute of Christian WorshipThinkChristian
“The View from Inside an Ambulance,” originally published in Esquire, is a powerful essay by paramedic Chris Jones on his experiences dealing with death on a daily basis. His work both confronts him with, and numbs him to, human fragility. His closing story about reviving a man presumed dead, in front of the man’s son, has a hint of resurrection in it.
The article reminded me that our line of work—the way we use our God-given gifts—shapes our view of human nature
Harvard for Homeschoolers?
Author: Katelyn Beaty, Class of 2006Books and Culture
When did conservative Christians become odd, fascinating creatures to bring under the journalistic lens?
Talking healthcare
Author: Interview with Doug Koopman, professor political science and Ruth Groenhout, professor of philosophyCalvin News and Stories
Recently, Calvin professor of philosophy Ruth Groenhout and Calvin professor of political science Doug Koopman discussed healthcare in America: what’s wrong, what’s right, what could fix the system and who’s going to pay.
A cheery Happy 500th Birthday to a non-dour Reformer: John Calvin
Author: Nathan Bierma, Minds co-editorThinkChristian.net
The problem with turning 500 is that you start to sound old. John Calvin, who was born 500 years ago today, will be remembered by many today as a dour old codger who loved to talk about sin and depravity, someone who was always in a bad mood. It’s true that Calvin had his grumpy moments—although I probably would too if I suffered from constant intestinal disorders and a battery of other chronic ailments, as Calvin did. And it’s true that Calvin spared few words when talking about the severity of our condition as a result of sin—though I don’t think Paul or Augustine were much less blunt about our depravity. (The less said about the nasty names Calvin called the Pope, meanwhile, the better.)
I’ve been learning lately that Calvin actually lived, thought, and wrote with a palpable pastoral heart and a vivid vision of God’s goodness and grace—and that without this part of the picture of who Calvin was, all you get is a caricature.
