Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4576 )

• Seeing I

  

  One of my few Twitter followers (stawiggins) suggested that I watch Dr. Ken Hayworth on YouTube. Specifically, Part 3: If we can build a brain, what is the... Read more

  Posted on 26 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ptsd

  

  In a recent post on BBC Health, James Gallagher discusses ancient Assyria. What can ancient Assyria have to say about modern health, beyond the occasional... Read more

  Posted on 25 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Poet Tree

  

  Perspective often determines reality. Among those animals that can potentially live what seems to us a long time, humans measure centuries and millennia, lookin... Read more

  Posted on 24 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ships Ahoy

  

  I’m always on the lookout for a good metaphor. Some time ago a humorous list of improbable book titles was circulating the internet. One of those books was How... Read more

  Posted on 23 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Soulful Phantoms

  

  Phantasmagoria is a most appropriate title for the book by Marina Warner that bears that single-word name. The back cover bears none of those helpful tags that... Read more

  Posted on 22 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Weather to Panic

  

  Over the long weekend, our furnace kicked off two days in a row. This January has been chillier than some, and we’ve been sitting around with blankets on our... Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Creating Diversity

  

  Informed opinion is a chimera. I write that as someone who has time to read only the news stories my wife or my friends pass on to me. Once in a while one of... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Just Justice

  

  It was not intentionally because it was Martin Luther King Junior’s alma mater that I chose to attend Boston University School of Theology. Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Divergency

  

  Self-denial, no matter what its motivation, is a religious ideal. In its more extreme forms it becomes martyrdom, but most religions agree on the value of takin... Read more

  Posted on 18 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Maine Event

  

  We have no control over where we’re born. Place, however, has a sacred significance. Many people have a sense of where they belong. Life may be a prolonged... Read more

  Posted on 17 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Last Word

  

  The end of the world, it seems, never goes out of fashion. My wife shared a story on the BBC about CNN (such self-referential media hype may be a sign that... Read more

  Posted on 16 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Holy Food

  

  One of the undisputed benefits of working for a publisher of a wide variety of academic books is the opportunity to learn about different topics that might... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Bodily Futures

  

  Just about everyone I know has their own method of curing the hiccups (or, in their more evocative spelling, hiccoughs). Most of these involve holding one’s... Read more

  Posted on 14 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• News Work

  

  I’m confused. (Well, no surprises there.) I just read the cover story in last week’s Newsweek, “The Bible: So Misunderstood it’s a Sin,” by Kurt Eichenwald.... Read more

  Posted on 13 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Maritime Dreams

  

  Early in my teaching career, I used to arrive in Milwaukee on a train after midnight. A student from Nashotah House on work-study would pick me up at the train... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Worn Out Religion

  

  Truth claims are integral to religions. No one would join a religion not declaring itself to be true. Some months ago, I posted about the store True Religion... Read more

  Posted on 11 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Truth Anonymous

  

  Many a student has been spared the reading of primary sources by study guides. This is not a new phenomenon. While still regularly teaching Hebrew Bible, I... Read more

  Posted on 10 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Monster Map

  

  Monsters are becoming more mainstream. Or at least it seems that the ridicule factor, with which I had to deal as a child, has moderated a bit. A friend recentl... Read more

  Posted on 09 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Charlie Hebdo

  

  With the tragic news coming out of Paris, a predictable set of recriminations are about to begin. Because of the actions of some extremists, “religion” will be... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Harpy New Year

  

  A grueling early morning commute is seldom enhanced by complaining. I suspect most of us would rather not be here, crowded next to strangers on a barely adequat... Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2015 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY