Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4574 )

• Camera Obscura

  

  There’s a certain etiquette to being on the bus. There has to be, when you pack fifty strangers together for an hour and shake gently. Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Religious Monsters

  

  Some colleagues and I are working to meet a deadline. I suppose I use the word “colleague” rather grandly, since they both have teaching positions, nevertheless... Read more

  Posted on 26 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Under the Weather

  

  A friend, knowing my penchant to watch the skies, sent me a story about the British and the weather. The story by Alastair Sooke on the BBC’s cultural page is... Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Super Reality

  

  Reality is not often, if ever, what it appears to be. As creatures that evolved to survive in this particular environment, we have passed along and received... Read more

  Posted on 24 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Presidential Race

  

  My wife and I have been working our way through Ken Burns’ documentary, The Roosevelts. At first, it took a little persuading on my wife’s part. Read more

  Posted on 23 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Witch

  

  , by Robert Eggers, is a parable. The movie accepts, and to appreciate it the viewer must too, that there is actually witchcraft in New England. Unless the witc... Read more

  Posted on 22 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Writers and Readers

  

  Writers are immortals. Well, at least as long as our species lasts. As a mere internet writer, I suppose that I’m not alone in wanted published books to my name... Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Rumors of Books

  

  An off-the-cuff remark by Sandeep Mathrani, some CEO of something or other, had the publishing world buzzing a couple weeks back. The rumor began that Amazon.co... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Philistines in Midtown

  

  It’s an old story. In fact, it’s in the Bible. The enemies of Yahweh perish. Since Israel’s god could not be represented iconically, the story goes, an iconic... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Seekers

  

  We live not far from an upscale mall. This mall, although over 30 miles from Manhattan, has its own bus line dedicated to it by New Jersey Transit. Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Chilling Thoughts

  

  I don’t think much about glaciers. At least I didn’t. Now they keep me awake at night. Literally. I just finished Jorge Daniel Taillant’s Glaciers: The... Read more

  Posted on 17 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Footprints in the Snow

  

  A friend keenly aware of my interest in the unusual sent me a story about the “Devil’s Footprints” that sometimes occur in snow. The article focuses on an... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• A Mighty Fortress

  

  I have to admit to having not seen the Lego Movie. As a kid, I grew up without Legos. We were a family of modest means, so Lincoln Logs were more our style. Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Problem with Love

  

  As far as we can tell, historically there is no Saint Valentine that is particularly connected to February 14. Even if there were, it is difficult to imagine a... Read more

  Posted on 14 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Price of Academic Publishing

  

  During seminary, I believe it was, a professor once told those of us in class, “You don’t get rich in academic publishing.” As the author of a widely used... Read more

  Posted on 13 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Universal Universities

  

  Having been in academia for nearly two decades, and having watched from the sidelines ever since being benched, I found Dear Committee Members a little too... Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Faith for Sale

  

  Materialism can be defined in a number of different ways. One of the more common is that people desire material things. We want stuff. Now, we all need things t... Read more

  Posted on 11 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Commitment

  

  Marriage is a human institution. As those who invented it, we should be able to define it. Biology may not help here, since animals become mating pairs in many... Read more

  Posted on 10 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Bottom Line

  

  Understanding, or even caring about, economics has been one of my abiding weaknesses. I suppose growing up poor, excess money was a foreign concept—at least on ... Read more

  Posted on 09 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Grim Where?

  

  An inordinate amount of my childhood time was spent on television. While the device of the day had been around for a decade already, I was among those who grew... Read more

  Posted on 08 February 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY