Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4573 )

• Ammonia Avenue

  

  It’s 7:00 p.m. I’m still sitting on a bus, in unmoving traffic a mere three miles from home. I stepped out of my front door over 13 hours ago and I have only... Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Making Prophets

  

  I first read 1984 around its eponymous date. The context is informative. I was a student at Grove City College, a conservative, Reagan-esque school of strong... Read more

  Posted on 19 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• A Kind of Contact

  

  I find myself in Ithaca, New York. Places have a resonance with people, and this is one of those places I feel like I belong. The feeling may not be mutual,... Read more

  Posted on 18 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Remember Ronnie?

  

  Listening to Comrade Trump, I wonder what it is the GOP really wants. My doublethink may be fuddled a bit, but I’m old enough to remember a guy called Ronald... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Viewing Religion

  

  Scholars employed by the academy sometimes fall under its privileged bubble. In that rarified space, the classics, the Bible, and even serious contemporary... Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Overdone

  

  One of the things you see quite a lot of as an editor is “the next big thing.” Authors with an ego that awes me ensure me that this book will be the sea change... Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Living Challenged

  

  One of the surest signs of hope for the world is that academics are beginning to notice monsters. A trickle began some time ago and it’s probably best to call i... Read more

  Posted on 14 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Birds

  

  While waiting for the bus, now that it’s light out that early, I like watching the birds. They have complex interactions and so many different styles of... Read more

  Posted on 13 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• O Absalom

  

  It feels like confession every time I go to get my hair cut. I sit in the chair and a girl younger than my daughter looks perplexed when I explain it’s been a... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Flat Devils

  

  Fiction is a framework to approach reality. People are drawn to stories because they help us to make sense of a bewildering world which wasn’t, in reality,... Read more

  Posted on 11 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Nature of Evidence

  

  Home alone on a Friday night, I turned to Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu. Not a typical horror film, this art house production is an updating and remaking of F. W. Read more

  Posted on 10 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Keeping Pace

  

  I had no idea my life was in danger. I was out for a weekend walk with my wife, when suddenly, there they were. Snails. In case you think I’m over-reacting, tak... Read more

  Posted on 09 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Analyze This

  

  Reading other people’s scripture is a privilege. Although somewhere in my long study of the history of religion I must have read excerpts of The Analects, I hav... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Fame and Fortune

  

  I was that awkward introvert in high school. Actually, I’m still that awkward introvert now, as easily talked over in editorial board meetings as I always have... Read more

  Posted on 07 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Filmy Substance

  

  It’s all about Jesus. Well, that’s an overstatement, even in context. One of the amazing things to me about books addressing the Bible in film is just how... Read more

  Posted on 06 June 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• 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