Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4572 )

• Joshua Fit

  

  “Horrible things are going to happen!” shouts Grandpa Simpson. He ends his epiphany in church with the strange words “Epa, epa! Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Stranger Things

  

  Albert Camus preferred the label “absurdist” to “existentialist” to describe himself. The problem with labels is that we don’t always get to pick our own. Read more

  Posted on 05 November 2017 RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Digging Even Deeper

  

  What does it mean to exist for someone else? Isn’t this the very definition of slavery? Yes, we may voluntarily give ourselves to someone for the sake of love,... Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Amityville Revisited

  

  Remakes, standard wisdom holds, are seldom as good as the originals. When the original wasn’t great to begin with, the bar should be lower. Should be. Read more

  Posted on 03 November 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Turn the Other What?

  

  The man next to me on the bus is reading his Bible. At one point in my life that would’ve made me feel safe. I would’ve known that the person next to me was... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Spirits and Souls

  

  I first became aware of the work of Felicitas D. Goodman because of her classic text on spirit possession. Published by the reputable Indiana University Press,... Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• All Hallows Eve

  

  I can tell that I’ve been far too busy when I don’t have time to prepare for Halloween. I don’t mean commercially—running out and buying decorations and the... Read more

  Posted on 31 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Contracting Something

  

  Book contracts make me happy. After slipping from higher education into the limbo of editing, it took a few years before realizing that not all books have to... Read more

  Posted on 30 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Kings of Israel

  

  Eating out is something that has become more of a habit than it should. Still, when we get together with friends it’s a cause for celebration, and a restaurant... Read more

  Posted on 29 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Justice for All

  

  One of the perks of working for a publisher is author talks. I’ve worked for three publishers now, and the last two have made great efforts to bring authors to... Read more

  Posted on 28 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hiding Out

  

  It’s seen better days. The spine is coming unglued and the pages are brittle, fracturing into tan snowflakes as I turn the pages. Still, this unusual little boo... Read more

  Posted on 27 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Trained Witnesses

  

  The problem with lying is that it generally doesn’t hold up. Eventually people will figure out that a falsehood is exactly that and the liar will be scorned.... Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Infinite but Expanding

  

  What could be more humbling than living in an infinite but expanding universe? Since the days of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton we’ve known... Read more

  Posted on 25 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Milkweed and Honey

  

  I’ve never thought of bugs as an ethical concern. Well, not directly anyway. I had some truly frightening encounters with insects and arachnids as a child, so... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• How to Talk to an Editor

  

  There are right ways and wrong ways to get your book published. When approaching an editor, there are a few things to keep in mind. For one thing, we’re human.... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Uncomfortable Truth

  

  Ugly. That’s not a word I use lightly. The phenomenon of racism is ugly. More than that, it’s insidious. I recently attended a community course on racism... Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Colleagues

  

  The death of a colleague is a shocking grief. Although my teaching career was cut short at Nashotah House, the faculty there was always small, and often... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Amityville

  

  Surely one of the most controversial haunting stories of my own lifetime was that which came to be known as The Amityville Horror. Read more

  Posted on 20 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Deity Electric

  

  The title set me back. “Deus ex machina: former Google engineer is developing an AI god.” The article in The Guardian is surprising in several ways. Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Scared Space

  

  Ghosts appear whether they exist or not. People have seen them, we know, since as early as written records permit us to know. I first ran into Colin Dickey’s... Read more

  Posted on 18 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY