Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4138 )

• Bull

  

  s have long been symbols. If I write “that’s bull” your mind will likely fill in the missing implied word. In ancient times the king of the gods, El, was known... Read more

  Posted on 05 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Girls to Men

  

  Seminary in the 1980s was a time of endless debate. Some of my classmates at Boston University School of Theology thought me too conservative—I’d made progress... Read more

  Posted on 04 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hex Marks the Spot

  

  Public versus private has been on my mind quite a bit lately. Partially it’s because I’ve been reading about magical beliefs and their persistence. Read more

  Posted on 03 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Preacher

  

  Ecclesiastes, I used to tell my students, is one of the most unusual books of the Bible. And that’s saying something. When we think of the Good Book we think... Read more

  Posted on 02 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sea Around Us

  

  Re-reading books is something I do somewhat too infrequently. One of the obvious reasons is that I won’t possibly finish everything I want to read in my lifetim... Read more

  Posted on 01 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• How to Type a Stereo

  

  In the early days of publishing, type was set by hand. Individual letters, inserted backward onto plates, were used for printing the positive of a page. Read more

  Posted on 31 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Light and Dark

  

  Prophets, mothers, messiahs. A new religion for a new world. While these may not be main themes of Robert Repino’s new novel D’Arc, they’re clearly there in... Read more

  Posted on 30 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ellis Island

  

  A few years back we made a trip to Ellis Island. This is a common field trip here in New Jersey, although none of my immediate family passed through this portal. Read more

  Posted on 29 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Beat the Press

  

  Like many people, I’ve been re-reading 1984 and wondering what’s going on in a country I thought I knew. With clear evidence of wrong-doing on the part of the... Read more

  Posted on 28 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Incident at the Wailing Wall

  

  While reading about Jerusalem lately, I recalled my first visit to the Wailing Wall. The Wailing Wall is the only standing part left of the temple that Herod th... Read more

  Posted on 27 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Human Omniscience

  

  This might take some thought, but please bear with me. I’ve been reading about how some scientists are eager to promote rationality only as the true... Read more

  Posted on 26 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Cloaking Device

  

  America’s book is seldom read. Those of us who spend an unusual amount of time with the Bible know this from personal experience, but others are starting to... Read more

  Posted on 25 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sleepy Holy

  

  Fox recently announced that, after four seasons, Sleepy Hollow is being cancelled. The news, while not unexpected, is still disappointing. The initial success o... Read more

  Posted on 24 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Seven Deadly

  

  If your outlook contains the word “supremacy,” I would humbly suggest, it’s time to rethink your philosophy. Borne of a deep insecurity—or overweening pride,... Read more

  Posted on 23 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Revisiting Frankenstein

  

  There’s nothing like going back to the classics. Many people don’t realize that one of the best-selling books of the nineteenth century was Mary Shelley’s... Read more

  Posted on 22 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Becoming

  

  It’s pretty difficult to summarize the feelings when watching your own child graduate from college. Of course, she’s not a child any more, but that’s always... Read more

  Posted on 21 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• One Size Fits All

  

  The divide between religion and science is often artificially widened by one side or the other. Of course the divide’s artificial—both science and religion are... Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Size and Its Matters

  

  Have you ever wondered where your Bible came from? No, I mean physically. There are many possible answers to such a query, so the other day I was searching for... Read more

  Posted on 19 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• It’s Okay

  

  It once seemed improbable that an entire book could be written on one word. The first time I noticed this I was a doctoral student who’d run across the late... Read more

  Posted on 18 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Spiritual Spelunking

  

  Looking at the headlines it’s sometimes difficult to believe we’ve evolved. I still trust evidence-based science, despite official government policy, however. Read more

  Posted on 17 May 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY