Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4649 )

• Monumental Time

  

  One of my nieces works on the 10,000-year clock (aka Clock of the Long Now). I’ve written about the project before—the object is to build a clock that will run ... Read more

  Posted on 26 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• More Blessed to Give

  

  Religions, we are told, are in violent opposition. There’s no denying that sometimes it’s true. It is a sad commentary on belief structures when one way of... Read more

  Posted on 25 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Time in a Museum

  

  Over the weekend we visited the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania. I became aware of the museum during one of my steampunk phases, and... Read more

  Posted on 24 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Eternal Huckleberries

  

  It began as a quest for immortality. Sometimes, however, you don’t recognize something even when it’s all around you. As an historian of religion, the quest... Read more

  Posted on 23 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Clerk and Dagger

  

  Photo credit: Luis García (Zaqarbal),, Wikimedia CommonsThese signed evolved with time. By the Middle Ages the asterisk and the dagger could be used to... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• When Under Rome

  

  A question that has no answer: who was Jesus of Nazareth? Well, no single answer, anyway. When Reza Aslan’s Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth... Read more

  Posted on 21 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Somewhere, Out There

  

  With Pope Francis’s impending visit, the New York-Philadelphia corridor is abuzz with discussions of traffic and commuting disruptions. Read more

  Posted on 20 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Brains and Selves

  

  The Tell-Tale Brain is an ambitious, yet humble attempt to find the self. V. S. Ramachandran is a neuroscientist with considerable psychology experience who is... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Being Sheepish

  

  Being among the animals at the fair, you begin to notice things that are foreign to those of us with exposure only to the house-pet variety of fellow creatures. Read more

  Posted on 18 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Charity

  

  On occasion someone will comment, either here or on my other popular writings, that I lack the objectivity of a journalist. This should be no surprise, really,... Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• All’s Fair

  

  The county fair is an institution that tastes like a real slice of Americana. My family’s been involved with our 4-H Fair for several years now. Read more

  Posted on 16 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Go Down, Moses

  

  For a time, I tried to write down family tradition. My family was somewhat unusual in that regard. Family saying came generally from my maternal... Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Shooting Stars

  

  One of the professions I used to consider as a child, before I had any real concept of the way the world works, was a scientist. Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• My Beloved Monsters

  

  Once upon a time I felt radical in claiming that monsters and religion shared a pedigree. Having grown up fascinated by Universal, as well as much cheaper and... Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Biblically Business

  

  Bibles are business. I recently read that the first book of which Oxford University Press sold a million copies was the Scofield Bible. Read more

  Posted on 12 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Credo

  

  One of my seminary professors, who shall remain nameless, averred in class that Christianity in the first centuries was popular because it was exclusive. Like... Read more

  Posted on 11 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Excavating Religion

  

  Jamestown, Virginia has the distinction of being the first British American colony to have survived. I’ve only been to Jamestown once, and that was about two... Read more

  Posted on 10 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Time and Again

  

  One score and ten years ago, I graduated from college. I also enrolled in seminary and worked in a United Methodist summer camp. I bought my own car and worked... Read more

  Posted on 09 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Last Chance to Sea

  

  I wasn’t brave enough to don swimming trunks in front of academic colleagues and climb into the Dead Sea. Instead, I dipped a finger in an touched it to my... Read more

  Posted on 08 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Witnessing Angels

  

  Back in my undergraduate days, I wanted to learn more about angels. Surprisingly, there were no courses offered on the subject, even at evangelical Grove City... Read more

  Posted on 07 August 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY