Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4648 )

• Bargain Basement

  

  Signs, in my experience at least, lend themselves to being over-read. How often a heedless moment suggests something more than was intended—signs try to say... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Banned Magic

  

  “If you believe in the power of magic,” Eric Woolfson plaintively sang, “then I can change your mind.” A song that bewitched my younger years, when the... Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Centuries and Millennia

  

  This past week I had a look at Christian Century. It has been about a century since I’ve read it, so I noticed quite a few changes in that time. Magazines in... Read more

  Posted on 18 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• ET Vs UAC

  

  When I first heard of “unaccompanied alien children,” I hope I might be forgiven for thinking about ET. Or EBEs as they’re sometimes called, “Extraterrestrial... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Disarmament

  

  Maybe it’s just where I cast my attention, but debates over belief or unbelief seem to be everywhere these days. The word “militant” is used to describe belief... Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Fighting with Monsters

  

  The Lady and Her Monsters reminded me of Gothic. A friend of mine in seminary showed me this “shocking” movie by Ken Russell just after it was released on VHS (... Read more

  Posted on 15 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Horsemanship

  

  Hi ho Silver, away! I’ve been pondering academic freedom. (It was suggested to me that I might discourse on such.) My academic career, three years cold in the... Read more

  Posted on 14 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Fashions to Slaves

  

  Howard Thurman was a theologian who held saintly status in my days at Boston University. As an African-American he’d experienced episodes while growing up that... Read more

  Posted on 13 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Dark and Stormy Night

  

  I miss my monsters, especially when I stay away too long. I had eyeballed Roseanne Montillo’s The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• What I Mean

  

  It might seem, in this world of constant misunderstanding, that we might get along better were it not for the Tower of Babel. I mean, we call it a language... Read more

  Posted on 11 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sustain This

  

  “Grant me chastity and continence,” Augustine famously prayed, “but not yet.” That tragicomic scene kept coming to me as I read Jeremy L. Caradonna’s... Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Dystopian Paradise

  

  Dystopias resonate with me. As I ponder why, two factors seem to rise to the surface: dystopias are inevitably populist in orientation, and I was raised... Read more

  Posted on 09 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Cost of Being Human

  

  In last week’s Time magazine Joel Stein’s “The Awesome Column,” a humorous endnote for somber weekly news, spoke to me. Although Stein writes as light relief,... Read more

  Posted on 08 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Disco Duck

  

  From the Roman Empire, Holy or otherwise, to the British Empire upon which the sun once never set, human endeavors are inevitably temporary. We like to think... Read more

  Posted on 07 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Our Pigeons, Ourselves

  

  You don’t have to be in New York City long to begin to see yourself as an expert on pigeons. The ubiquitous avians are ruthlessly castigated as “flying rats” an... Read more

  Posted on 06 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Exceptionalism

  

  Some years ago I was invited to a famous person’s house along with some intellectuals—we’re all mature here, so names aren’t necessary. Read more

  Posted on 05 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Waking Up in Galilee

  

  One voice can’t be heard. Unless, of course, it has a publicist. For years, it seems, I have been suggesting in my obscure corner of the internet that we’re... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Quantum Uncertainty

  

  Physics has moved beyond the point of comprehension for the average citizen, if I might be permitted to class myself as that. I got the concept of the atom,... Read more

  Posted on 03 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Religion, Technically

  

  One of the truths of history is that technology has always been with us. Reading Steampunk stories always boosts my historical sense of the interaction of... Read more

  Posted on 02 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sentence

  

  Labor Day marks the end of summer. Originally a day to commemorate all that the common laborer has contributed to society, it is now always a slightly melanchol... Read more

  Posted on 01 September 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY